Beatrix Jones Farrand [1872-1959]—landscape architect

–niece of Edith Wharton
–grew up in New York society during the Gilded Age
–studied with landscape architect who designed Boston’s Arnold Arboretum
–started taking gardening commissions in 1897 and worked for J.P. Morgan, Abby Rockefeller, Princeton, Yale and Vassar

–designed Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C. [If you’ve never been, go. It’s magnificent.]
–co-founded [with Wharton friend Frederick Law Olmstead] American Society of Landscape Architects in 1899
–in 1913, married Yale historian Max Farrand
–honored with the Garden Club of American Medal of Achievement in 1947

Ella Fitzgerald [1918-1996 ]—jazz singer

–grew up in New York orphanage for blacks
–at 16, performed at Harlem’s Apollo Theater
–sang works by George Gershwin and Irving Berlin
–recorded with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington
–youngest person admitted to American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers in 1943
–in 1947, married and kept her name, adopted a child

–she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums
–awarded National Medal of the Arts by the White House in 1987
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