Dr June McCarroll - Infinite Women

Born: 30 June 1867, United States
Died: 30 March 1954
Country most active: United States
Also known as: June Adaline Whittlesey

The following is excerpted from Infinite Women founder Allison Tyra’s book The View from the Hill: Women Who Made Their Mark After 40.

June McCarroll was a doctor in early 1900s Indio, California, a “tiny, tough-talking lady who often strapped on a six-shooter to make house calls,” according to The LA Times. But for all the good she did as a physician, she saved far more lives by taking up the cause of road safety when she was 40 and semi-retired. After being run off the road one too many times by a driver who likely couldn’t tell where their half of the road stopped, a simple but brilliant idea occurred to her—why not paint lines down the center to keep everyone on the correct side of the road? Taking the proposal to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors and the Chamber of Commerce accomplished nothing. So, like countless women before and since, Dr. McCarroll decided if she wanted to get something done, she’d just have to do it herself. She went out and painted a two-mile-long, four-inch-wide white stripe down the centre of the road in front of her house.
While she may not have been the first to take that particular action in the United States, Dr. McCarroll didn’t stop with the paint. For seven years, she wrote letters and petitioned the county and state, and finally, with the support of the Indio Women’s Club and the California Federation of Women’s Clubs, her efforts paid off. The California State Legislature authorized the State Highway Commission to paint center lines in 1924 and by the time of her 1954 death at age 86, her stripes were commonplace across the U.S. and beyond. Today, a five-mile stretch of Interstate 10 in Indio is named in her honor, with a historical marker sharing her story.