Famous Women Named Martha Trivia Quiz

Answer: Kostyra

Martha, who is of Polish descent, is the second-oldest of six children. She was raised in Nutley, New Jersey, a suburb of New York City. Her passions and her businesses include those specializing on homemaking skills, cooking, television and a host of other venues, including business associations with retailers K-Mart and Home Depot.

Answer: George Washington

Martha Washington was so vigorously opposed to her second husband's role as U.S. President that she adamantly refused to attend his inauguration ceremony. Talk about an independently minded American!

Prior to his presidency, and a bit ironically, Martha had lived in a home called "White House", with her first husband, Daniel Park Custis. Later, when she became the "First Lady", (although that title had not been yet coined), she lived with George in what was then called "The Presidential Palace".

(The name "White House" did not apply to the presidential residence until after Teddy Roosevelt officially gave it the name in 1901.)

Answer: Reeves

Martha Reeves, a native of Eufala, Alabama, headed up the group known as Martha and the Vandellas. She was less than a year old when her family moved to Detroit, Michigan. After a stellar singing career, Martha went on to the political arena, serving as a Detroit City Council member from 2005 to 2009.

Answer: Martha Raye

Martha Raye, (August 27, 1916 - October 19, 1994), had a terrible fear of flying, but that did not stop her from entertaining the troops with songs and comedy acts. During the Vietnam War, she was made an honorary Green Beret because when she visited United States Army Special Forces in Vietnam, she even assisted doctors as they treated men who had been shot just prior to her scheduled show.

President William Jefferson Clinton bestowed a great honor upon Martha Raye in 1993 when she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her service to the nation. The citation that she was presented reads as follows:

"A talented performer whose career spans the better part of a century, Martha Raye has delighted audiences and uplifted spirits around the globe. She brought her tremendous comedic and musical skills to her work in film, stage, and television, helping to shape American entertainment. The great courage, kindness, and patriotism she showed in her many tours during World War II, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam Conflict earned her the nickname 'Colonel Maggie.' The American people honor Martha Raye, a woman who has tirelessly used her gifts to benefit the lives of her fellow Americans."

Now that is some tribute! We veterans salute your memory, Martha!

Answer: Martha Gellhorn

Martha Gellhorn was a journalist in her own right before she ever met Ernest Hemingway. Harry Hopkins, a high ranking official in Franklin D. Roosevelt's adminstration, heard about some of her earlier work as a reporter for the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch", and hired her to travel about the country, writing about the effects of the Great Depression. It was during this time that she fabricated a story about the lynching of a black man in the South, which initially won her praise from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, until the story was exposed as fraudulent.

In a separate incident in North Carolina, she instructed some on-strike factory workers that she was writing about breaking the windows at their workplace as as a show of protest. This action caused her to lose her job.

She met Ernest Hemingway in Key West, Florida around Chrismas of 1936, and they both took off to cover the Spanish Civil War. The two of them were wed in 1940, and it proved to be a tumultous relationship, as both of them were known for having terrible tempers.

Answer: electrocution

Martha Beck, an infamous woman, died along with her "friend", Raymond Fernandez in the electric chair in New York. A not-so-brief synopsis of their little horror story follows:

The two of them were known as "The Lonely Heart Killers" and were suspected in the deaths of as many as 20 women between 1947 and 1949. The pair was later convicted for three of those deaths that were committed in 1949.

In 1947 Raymond answered a personal ad that had been placed by Martha Beck.

Martha, had served as a nurse in an Army hospital. While in California, she engage in a promiscuous lifestyle, and became pregnant. When the father of her daughter refused to marry her, she headed back to her native Florida, telling everyone that the father had been killed in the Pacific campaign. The local newspaper published the story as she told it.
Soon afterward, she had an affair with a bus driver from Pensacola, and after a brief marriage, her son was born. In 1946, she became employed at the Pensacola Hospital for Children.

She then placed a Lonely Hearts ad, which Raymond answered. Martha then told everyone that the two of them were getting married; Raymond took off to New York and she, after being fired from her job and then dumping her children off at the Salvation Army, showed up at his home.

Meanwhile, Janet Fay, a 66 year old woman, had become engaged to Fernandez and began living with him at his Long Island apartment. When Beck found her and Fernandez in bed together, she smashed Fay's head in with a hammer in a fit of rage, and then Fernandez strangled Fay.

They then took off to a suburb of Grand Rapids, Michigan where they met Delphine Downing, a young widow who had a two-year-old daughter. While they were staying with Delphine, Fernandez gave her sleeping pills to calm her down one evening. Martha became enraged with Downing's crying daughter, so she attempted to strangle her, but failed to kill her. Raymond felt that Downing might become suspicious if she saw her daughter with bruises on her neck, so he shot the unconscious woman. The couple then stayed for several days in Downing's house. Again becoming angry by the baby's crying, Martha finally drowned her in a tub of water. They buried the bodies in the basement, but the neighbors reported the disapperances of the mother and child. When the police arrived, they arrested the two killers.

Answer: Australia

Martha Rendell was the second wife of Thomas Morris. She murdered three of his children by swabbing their throats with "spirits of salts", causing them great agony because of the ensuing inflammation and hemorrhage of the bowels.

Her crimes only came to light when in April 1909, the fourth child and near-victim, George Morris, was reported missing. Neighbours had begun expressing their concern to the police, since his two sisters and brother had died under suspicious circumstances. Detective Sergeant Mann and Constable Lamond of the Western Australia police eventually found George at his mother's home. He claimed to have run away because his step-mother had killed his siblings and was trying to poison him as well.

During the police interview processes, a neighbour gave evidence that she had seen Martha swabbing Arthur Morris's throat and had heard his screams and cries for help. Later when visiting the home, she had smelled the bottle and noticed strong fumes that caused a burning sensation to her nose, but Martha Rendell claimed that a doctor had prescribed the "medication".

Although the police wanted to charge her husband for complicity in the crimes, this was not allowed by the courts. Martha Rendell was hanged in Fremantle Prison on October 6, 1909.

Answer: Martha Graham

Because Martha Graham's early dances were angular, and almost "cubist" in execution, she earned the title "The Picasso of Dance". Most of her creative processes were the result of what she termed, "a certain stirring." Her inspiration came from such diverse studies as classical mythologies, early American history, Bible stories, historical figures, primitive rituals, contemporary social problems, Zen Buddhism, and even more esoteric themes.

The 1960's saw a decline in her creative powers, as she was becoming more aged, yet her influence grew ever stronger over a subsequent generation of performers, thus firmly establishing her position as one of the founders of the modern dance.

Answer: Martha Hyer

Besides starring in "The Sons of Katie Elder", Martha Hyer has starred in a variety of films, such as "The Best of Everything", "Ice Palace", "Desire in the Dust", "The Carpetbaggers", "First Men in the Moon", "Blood on the Arrow", and "Night of the Grizzly", among many others.

She was considered for the role of Marion Crane in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller "Psycho", but she lost out the role to Janet Leigh. Her last film to date was "Day of the Wolves" in 1973.

Answer: Martha Coakley

Martha Coakley was elected as Massachusetts Attorney General in the 2006 general election as a Democrat, beating Republican Larry Frisoli with 73% of the vote.

Prior to her election as Attorney General, she had been the Democratic nominee to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the death of Ted Kennedy. Her Republican opponent, Scott Brown, shocked the state by winning the election, no small feat for a state known for its favored leanings towards Democratic candidates for office.

In 2010, Coakley helped draft a Massachusetts law regulating obscenity on the internet; however, the law was overturned by a federal judge.