Women's History

Produced through the Greek Women's University Club, this is a collection of the struggles and triumphs, the pathos and joy of five women who immigrated to the United States.

Greek women pioneers faced a difficult life when they arrived in the xenia (""strange land"") from the rural farms of Greece. They did not speak English, were bewildered by crowded Chicago and the alien culture, and unlike their male family, often did not have opportunity to work outside the home. Yet these brave, spirited women triumphed over adversity and embraced their adopted country to become exemplary citizens. Chronicling the stories of Georgia Bitzis Pooley, Presbytera Stella Christoulakis Petrakis, Theano Papazoglou Margaris, Venette Tomaras Askounes Ashford, and Senator Adeline J. Geo-Karis, this book showcases the life stories of immigrant pioneer women, their families, friends, and the emerging Greek-American community of Illinois.

First with the Chicago Sun, then the Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune, the Duchess's newspaper career ran parallel to the 20th Century. She covered, as she called it, "blood, guts and sex," as well as presidents, natural disasters, women's issues, and-notably-humanitarian causes.

This volume, the first on the life and career of Virginia Marmaduke, reprints many of the famous articles from her Chicago heyday. Additionally, it documents her childhood in Carbondale, Illinois, her first newspaper job, and her return to Southern Illinois where she became a community booster, humanitarian, and beloved "all-Illinoisian."