Because this is Women’s History Month, I can’t help but appreciate the female relatives closest to me who were game changers in our family. My paternal grandmother Audrey (“Granny”, as I called her) born in Acola MS was the first in her family to attend college at Mary Holmes Seminary and teach in the Washington County School System. A pioneer churchwoman, she traveled throughout the state of Mississippi as a pianist at church revivals. She later became President of the State Baptist Women’s Convention. My great aunt Marie (“B.B.” as I called her who was Granny’s middle sister) was the first to come to Chicago from MS. Eager to always learn and improve, she went to night school and beauty school to become licensed to practice as a beautician. She first worked as a maid at the Sheridan Plaza Hotel. Later she became head housekeeper at the Washington Park YMCA. When she earned enough money, she sent train tickets for my Granny Audrey, her younger sister Essie Mae and my father to come live with her in Chicago. BB was the only one of her sisters who learned how to drive. She was the first in our family to buy property in Chicago. And she bought my Dad and cousin their first cars, each time paid in full entirely in cash. My aunt Essie Mae was a Red Cross certified Rural First Aid health practitioner in MS. Later she became a leader in her church in Chicago as President of The Modernettes Club, an office she held for 36 years. Through her annual church teas and fashion shows, her club was the church’s largest fundraiser. My maternal grandmother, Lillian (“Nanny” as I called her) was the first in her family to attend college and work in a white collar profession for the state of Illinois Dept of Labor in the Unemployment Compensation division. She later married the executive editor of the Chicago Defender newspaper. Nanny instilled education and life long learning in my mother, who skipped 2 grades in elementary school and entered HS at age 11 and entered the University of Chicago at age 16. My mother was the first in her family to earn a master’s degree. She became a Spanish and French teacher and was the first Black teacher at Wells H.S. Later she was a guidance counselor in the Chicago Public Schools. I am so blessed to have had all these progressive, high achieving women nurture me so I might reach my potential. I see a little bit of each of them in me. (In my Eve’s Bayou narrator voice: ) I am the descendant of Audrey, Marie, Essie Mae, Lillian and Jeanne Lorraine. I was named for her.