“Evelyn” won the crown of “Beauty Queen” at Northwestern University, and later received her Masters in Music and taught piano until she was 90. But when WW II got under way, she volunteered to be an “Air Force Aide” and worked on recruiting soldiers. After that she traveled to Egypt as the guest of that country’s leading female journalist, Amina al Saad, and became friends with the widow of Anwar Sadat, after his assassination. She also raised money for orphanages in the Middle-East among other projects.

She even wrote a novel (but it wasn’t published) — Here’s her photo when serving in the Air Force.

From S. Lee Manning:

My mother-in-law, Mildred D. Manning, a poor farm girl who became a nurse, was a true Rogue. To see the world, she joined the army in 1941, and on December 7, 1941, was in the Philippians when the Japanese attacked. She treated the wounded and, with surviving soldiers, evacuated to the island of Corregidor. When the Americans surrendered there, she was one of 66 nurses taken prisoner of war. They were interned in Santo Tomas in Manila for three years with European civilians. While interned, she worked as a nurse to care for the other prisoners. All of the nurses survived – when they were freed, they became famous as the Angels of Bataan. She traveled the country, helping to sell war bonds for the remainder of the war – which is how she met her eventual husband, Arthur Manning, my husband’s father.

The time in the camp took its toil – she lost all her teeth, and she suffered stomach ailments the rest of her life. She also had to deal with anxiety. On a personal note, she was a wonderful warm lady with a great sense of humor, a love of books, dogs, and her family. My two kids adored her. When she died in 2013, the last surviving Angel, we were devastated. She and the other nurses are memorialized in We Band of Angels, and the paperback edition features her in the final chapter, “Last Woman Standing.” Her obituary ran in the New York Times.

From Lisa Black:

Honestly, I can’t think of anyone less Rogue than my mother. Born in 1919, she did exactly what was expected of a woman in her day—she got married and stayed that way until death, ran a household, raised six children, cooked, baked, and loved to garden. Of course, that also happened to be exactly what she wanted to do. In no way did the gentle manner make her a pushover, as anyone around her would quickly learn. 

She enjoyed the good times and muddled through the bad and treated every single person she met with dignity and empathy, not only to their face but in every expression, regardless of their race, religion, economic status or any other demographic check box. Only those who engaged in physically reckless behavior or inexplicably loose morals could earn her harshest criticism, to wit: “She’s got rocks in her head.”

All this makes her, in my opinion, the most amazing person I’ve ever known.

From Chris Goff:

My grandmother Smith, my mother’s mother, was widowed at the age of 37. The wife of a prominent business man, she lived in a beautiful house in Elgin, Illinois, with a high-spirited daughter and the love of her life. All of that changed in an instant. At the age of 32, my grandfather Smith dropped dead of a massive stroke.

Esther Pauline Swanson grew up on a farm in Lily Lake, spoke Swedish until she was five, and went to public school. She was no stranger to hardship, and when Grandpa died she did what she had to do. She found a job, sold the house, and built a new home for herself and my mother. It was a big change going from a three-bedroom home with a wraparound porch to a one-bedroom apartment in a more eclectic part of town. A big change going from a society wife to the Executive Secretary of the Kerber Meat Packing Company. But Grandma never complained. She and my mother shared a bedroom until my mother went off to college. She worked at Kerber’s for 30 years, and she maybe went on two dates after my grandfather died. She liked being introduced as Mrs. Everett Smith.

My grandma’s life was filled with friends, family, and church. She loved to quilt, spent six weeks every year at our home in Colorado, and loved eating lunch at the Woolworth’s food counter. She was never extravagant, and took only one big trip in her life—a trip to Sweden to meet her cousins and see her ancestral home.

Grandma taught my mother and I about love and sacrifice, and instilled in us a strong work ethic, compassion and humility. Gram led by example. And, she never let me win at Yahtzee!

Tell us about a Rogue Woman in your life! We’d love to know her story.