The first woman ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church; she piloted a balloon nearly 58,000 feet over Lake Erie in 1934 to study the effects of cosmic rays in the stratosphere. She was the first woman to enter space, and hers was the first successful stratospheric flight made through a layer of clouds with a balloon that remained under control for the entire flight
Intellectual ‘warrior nun’
First Nations nun who sang for a queen
Matriach of the Legendary Ingramettes, widely considered Richmond, Va.’s “First Family of Gospel,” uplifting audiences for over six decades while becoming beloved cultural icons in the community.
The Winnsboro Easter Rock Ensemble, under the direction of Hattie Addison Burkhalter, maintains a rare women-led African American traditional spiritual ritual, rooted in both Christian worship and West African ring shout tradition.
McKen has sung traditional sacred Yoruba music since she was 14 and is recognized as a Priestess of Yemonja.
Helen Timmons Henderson served in the Virginia House of Delegates (1924–1925), one of the first two women elected to that body (the other was Norfolk‘s Sarah Lee Fain).
Foundress of Termonmore and saint in the Irish tradition
Cécile Fatiman was a mambo (a vodou priestess) who is believed to have formed networks on the island of Haiti that would transfer information from plantation to plantation.
African Methodist Episcopal preacher