Do You Remember Martha? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Martha Dandridge Custis

Martha Dandridge Custis was first married to Daniel Custis, a wealthy Virginia planter. He died suddenly, leaving Martha a widow with two children. She married George Washington in 1759. George and Martha had no children of their own. George was over 6 feet tall, Martha was only about 5 feet tall. Martha did not support George's candidacy for president nor did she attend his inauguration. Martha lived approximately three years more after the death of George.

Martha Wayles Skelton was the wife of the third president of the USA, Thomas Jefferson. Martha Johnson is the daughter of President Andrew Johnson and his wife, Eliza Johnson. Martha Duncan (nee Hughes) was the first woman to vote in the state of Utah after the 19th Amendment was passed.

Answer: Jane Asher

"Martha My Dear" was released on The White Album (Side 2, Track 9) on November 22, 1968. It had been recorded on October 4, 1968. Paul McCartney wrote the song although on the album, both John Lennon and Paul are credited with the song. The story goes that the song was named for Paul's sheep dog, Martha, but was actually about Asher who was Paul's girlfriend at that time. Some of the lyrics include "Martha my dear through my days in conversation..." and "Martha my dear you have always been my inspiration..."

Linda Eastman was Paul's wife for over 28 years before she died of cancer in 1998. Nancy Shevell is the woman that Paul is currently dating. Paul met Dot Rhone in 1959 and they dated for approximately 3 years.

Answer: Martha Plimpton

Martha Plimpton was born in November, 1970 to Keith Carradine ("Deadwood", 2004 and "Dexter", 2007) and Shelley Plimpton. Martha was conceived while her parents were performing on Broadway in the play, "Hair". Her grandfather was John Carradine. David Carradine, her uncle, is famous for appearing in both of the "Kill Bill" movies in 2003.

Martha and the late River Phoenix were romantically involved before River's death in 1993. Martha Carradine would have been Martha Plimpton's name if she had taken her father's last name instead of her mother's. "Martha" Martin refers to the fact that Martha Plimpton starred with Steve Martin in the movie, "Parenthood" in 1989.

Answer: Martha Beall

Martha Beall Mitchell was born in 1918 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. She died from cancer in 1976 at the age of 57. Richard Nixon, US president who had to resign because of the Watergate scandal, stated to David Frost, "If it hadn't been for Martha Mitchell, there'd have been no Watergate." This refers to the fact that Martha was well-known by the press because she often called them to feed them stories about Watergate.

Martha Logan was a fictional character on "24" who was modeled after Martha Mitchell. Martha Kahn played the part of Martha Mitchell in the movie, "Nixon". "Martha" Dean is Maureen Dean, wife of John Dean, another important figure in the Watergate scandal.

Answer: Mary and Martha

Mary and Martha were good friends of Jesus who visited them often. Martha was probably the oldest as she has been described as the "homemaker". The story I remember from Sunday School was that Martha did most of the work and became resentful of Mary who got to spend more time with Jesus. Jesus told Martha to (in words of today) "stop and smell the roses." When Lazarus was ill, Martha sent word to Jesus who arrived, unfortunately, four days too late. However, Jesus rolled the stone away from the Lazarus's tomb and told him to come out, which he did in front of several Jewish mourners.

All other names given are popular women's names from the Old Testament.

Answer: Martha Clark

According to the television show, "Smallville", Martha Clark Kent was the daughter of William Clark. She married Jonathan Clark but they had no children of their own. When riding home one day, a meteor shower hit the town of Smallville. After taking cover in their overturned pickup truck, Jonathan and Martha emerged and were greeted by a smiling boy, about two or three years of age who was Kal-El, the soon-to-be Clark Kent and future Superman. As Martha put it, "We didn't find him. He found us."

After the death of her husband, Martha took his place in the Kansas State Senate. She was only there for one year as she was soon appointed to the US Senate because of the death of a Kansas Senator. Annette O'Toole played the part of Martha Clark Kent.

All the other answer choices are fictional.

Answer: Obstruction of Justice and Lying to Investigators

Born in 1941 in New Jersey, Martha Kostrya Stewart is known to anyone who has picked up a recent cookbook or planned the perfect wedding. In 2001, the Ladies Home Journal reported that Martha Stewart was the third most powerful woman in the USA. Late in 2001, Martha dodged a loss of over $45,000 by selling all of her shares in ImClone. ImClone had recently received "an adverse ruling" from the FDA.

In June, 2003, the SEC arrested Martha and charged her with Securities Fraud and Obstruction of Justice. Martha was eventually convicted of Obstruction of Justice and Lying to Investigators and sentenced to five months in federal prison, two years probation and a $30,000 fine. According to my most recent source, Marie41 (a Fun Trivia player, of course), the jury at Martha's trial was not presented with any Fraud charges. Martha Stewart is now a driving force behind Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

Answer: Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth played "Martha" opposite her husband, Richard Burton who played "George". The director of the movie was Mike Nichols. Elizabeth did win the Oscar for this performance; she also won in 1961 for her work in "Butterfield 8".

Katharine Hepburn won two best Acting Awards during the 1960s including 1967 for "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and in 1968 for "A Lion in Winter". Anne Bancroft won in 1962 for her role as Annie Sullivan in "The Miracle Worker". Maggie Smith (yes, she did other things before she was in Harry Potter movies) won in 1969 for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie".

Answer: Martha Jane Cannary

Matha Jane Cannary was born in 1852 in Princeton, MO, the oldest of six children. By 1867, she was the head of the family as both of her parents were deceased. By 1874, she got a job at Fort Russell as a scout for the US Army. Martha has no formal education, but she could read. She claimed to be married to Wild Bill Hickok. Calamity Jane also claimed to have had a child, a girl, with Wild Bill whom she gave up for adoption. There seems to be no truth in either story. Even so, Martha Jane Cannary, who died in 1903 at the age of 51, is buried next to Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood, SD.

All other names given are either other birds (Robin) or close relatives to the canary (Finch and Serin).

Answer: Graham

Martha Graham lived from 1894 until her death at age 96 in 1991. She was an American dancer and choreographer known as the "Mother of Modern Dance". Martha was the first dancer to perform at The White House. Receiving the Medal of Freedom Award was especially significant since President Ford's wife, Betty, had been a student of Martha Graham. The Martha Graham Dance Company is the oldest and most celebrated contemporary dance company in America. In 1998, Time magazine named Martha Graham "Dancer of the Century".

The other answer choices are also well known in the field of modern dance. Isadora Duncan was one of the early contributors to what we now know as modern dance. Unfortunately, Isadora is more remembered for how she died rather than how she danced. While riding in an open topped car in France, her signature flowing scarf got caught in the rear wheel causing her to be strangled. Judith Jamison, another pioneer in the modern dance movement, has won a Kennedy Center Award (1999), the National Medal of Arts (2001) and an Emmy for her PBS special entitled "A Hymn for Alvin Ailey". Suzanne Farrell was "discovered" by George Balanchine during his tenure at the School of American Ballet. Suzanne danced professionally for 28 years, one of the longest in the history of modern dance.