Talented Women of the Southern United States Quiz

Answer: Patsy Cline

Patsy Cline's many classics include "Walking After Midnight", "I Fall to Pieces", and my favorite "Crazy".

Ella Fitzgerald had a long career in both popular music and jazz. She was sometimes called the "Queen of Scat".

Patricia Cornwell's forte is the mystery novel. Her heroine, Kay Scarpetta, is a forensic pathologist.

Katie Couric gained fame as a television newscaster and personality.

Answer: Maya Angelou

Elizabeth Dole, in addition to being the wife of Bob Dole, worked for several presidents such as Secretary of Transportation, Secretary of Labor, and also as Director of the Red Cross.

Ava Gardner was a popular actor of the 1940s and 50s and had marriages with Frank Sinatra, Mickey Rooney, and Artie Shaw as well as romances with Ernest Hemingway and Howard Hughes.

Roberta Flack is a renown popular singer whose song "Killing Me Softly" was an international hit.

Angelou has authored many books and has been a college professor.

Answer: Lillian Ellison

Mary McLeod Bethune was president of Bethune-Cookman University, and served as NAACP president, and many national and international committees.

Beth Daniels was a professional golfer and one of the first to exceed five million dollars in prize money.

Sarah and her sister Angelina Grimke were activists on issues relating to slavery and feminist causes.

Answer: Carson McCullers

Carson McCuller's life was as sad as some of the characters in her novels. She battled illness, alcoholism, and depression.

Amy Grant began her singing career as a gospel singer but was able to become a cross-over artist in popular music.

Alice Walker was the first African-American writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature for her novel "The Color Purple".

Margaret Mitchell will always be remembered for her novel "Gone with the Wind". She was killed in an auto accident in 1949. It was thought that GWTW was her only novel but her son found a hand-written manuscript in the 1990s called "Lost Layson" but it has never had wide distribution.

Answer: Janet Reno

Reno often served as a lighting rod for the Clinton administration taking major responsibility for the Waco disaster and the Elian Gonzalez situation.

Faye Dunaway was nominated for an Academy Award for "Bonnie and Clyde" but did not win. Later she did win a Oscar for her performance as a TV executive in "Network".

Chris Evert was a championship tennis player who won most of the major titles on the tennis tour.


Katherine Harris was Florida's Secretary of State during the disputed election for President in 2000. Her decisions regarding the recount have been regarded as mostly political. A later run for Congress but was unsuccessful.She became involved in a campaign contribution scandal. It may not an overstatement to say that she changed the course of history.

Answer: Helen Keller

Keller was a college graduate, an active socialist, and helped to found the ACLU.

Tammy Wynette was a top country/western singer and had such hits as "Stand by Your Man" and "D.I.V.O.R.C.E" and was once married to country legend George Jones.

Tallulah Bankhead was born into a powerful Alabama political family. She was known for her flamboyant lifestyle and many romances, both with men and women. Her best known role was in Alfred Hitchcock's "Lifeboat".

Lurleen Wallace was the wife of George Wallace and served as First Lady of Alabama. She became the first female governor of Alabama, although she served only a short time due to illness. She was considered a surrogate for her husband but her short term saw improvements in mental health in Alabama.

Answer: Faith Hill

LeAnn Rimes began her singing career at age 2, was making personal appearances by age 8, and cut her first album at 11.

Eudora Welty was both a skilled writer and photographer. Her forte was the short story, but she won a Pulitzer Prize for her novel "The Optimist"s Daughter".

Oprah Winfrey overcame a difficult childhood to become cultural icon with her television program and her renown generosity.

Answer: C.J. Walker

C.J. Walker became a millionaire through her marketing of special cosmetics makeup especially for black women. She used much of her money to promote the NAACP and its objectives such as the enactment of anti-lynching laws.

Mahalia Jackson never strayed far from her gospel music roots. During her lifetime she recorded over 30 albums. She sang at Martin Luther King's funeral.

Clementine Hunter gained fame as a "primitive" or "folk" artist. She was born to former slave parents and worked much of her life in plantation fields. Given a gift of paints, she began to create over 4000 paintings even though she did not begin to paint until age 54. Many of her paintings are on discarded window shades, bottles, and brown paper bags. She was illiterate all her life and became known as the "Black Grandma Moses".

Angela Gregory as a sculptor was one of the few women to use large pieces of stone. She was one of the first female black artists to have her work displayed in major museums.

Answer: Bettie Page

Bettie Page was rumored to have been in abusive relationships with her father and her first husband. She was "discovered" sun bathing on a beach by a photographer and quickly became a popular model for what were called "gentleman magazines" in those days. She made many short films where she paraded her figure for five to eight minutes. Bettie was an early Playmate of the Month in "Playboy" magazine.

"Cousin" Minnie Pearl was a staple of the Grand Ole Opry for fifty years. Her out-of-style country dresses and her straw hat with plastic flowers still with a $1.98 price tag, made her the queen of country comediennes. She became a powerful force in the Nashville music scene.

Wilma Rudolph was a sickly child but overcame her health problems to win three gold medals at the 1960 Olympics. Her biography "Wilma" was made into a movie. Her career has been an inspiration for many.

Patricia Neal is an Oscar winning actress for her role in "Hud". Her career was interrupted by a series of stokes in 1965 which left her in a coma for three weeks. She worked very hard on her recovery and had a normal child later. Neal was the first Olivia Walton in the made-for-tv movie which became "The Waltons" TV series.

Answer: Helen Gurley Brown

Brown saved Cosmopolitan Magazine when she became editor. She has been often widely quoted such as "Good girls go to heaven; bad girls go everywhere".

Patsy Montana was an early country/western singer whose career started in the early 1930s. She was the first female artist to sell a million records in her genre.

Mary Steenburgen received an Academy Award as supporting actor in "Melvin and Howard" and has appeared in such films as "Cross Creek" and "Going South".

Nixon called Martha Mitchell the beginning of the Watergate scandal. Being the wife of the Attorney General, John Mitchell, she was privy to much information which she passed on to newspaper reporters. Many efforts were made by the Nixon administration to discredit her information and character but she proved to be correct in the end.