Yoon Joung Lee

By Yoon Joung Lee

The famous author of, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” Julia Ward Howe, was born in New York City in 1819.  Her father was a successful Wall Street banker, Samuel Ward and her mother was a published poet, Julia Rush Cutler, who was a granddaughter of William Greene, Governor of Rhode.  Howe was the third of seven children.   When she was five, her mother died shortly after giving birth to her seventh child and her father’s influence dominated the childrens’ lives.

From an early age, Julia Ward was educated by tutors and private schools.  She learned French from early childhood and began to learn Italian at 14.  She was also able to speak German and read Latin and Greek.  She was an intelligent child who utilized her family’s library to culturally expand herself, when women were very limited in their educational endeavors.

Her family home had an extensive library and art gallery.  At her library she became acquainted with writers such as Balzac and Sand without her father’s knowledge. The writer’s liberal and modern views contrasted with her father’s Calvinistic vision.

In 1843, Julia met and married Samuel Gridley Howe who was famous for his work on behalf of the Greek Revolution, reform work for prisoners, and support of education for the blind.  However, their marriage did not go well.   They were separated after 9 years of marriage in 1852.   Her husband wanted her to attend to “wifely duties” like rearing children and reading philosophy.  She brought her two youngest kids to her sister’s place in Rome.  Not too long after her return in 1954, she anonymously published her work “Passion Flowers,” a collection of poems.  The poems were sensational by talking about the intimate affairs of a ‘real’ man and woman and the author’s identity quickly became an open secret.

Around that time, she found a new resolution for her depression from her husband.  She became involved in the reform movement and supported various issues like abolition, womens’ rights, prison reform and education.  From her activities, she also met the Boston intellectual elite such as William Ellery Channing, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and Theodore Parker.  

While her husband strongly objected to her outside works, he also depended heavily on his wife as editor and writer for his newspaper, The Commonwealth.   Although Julia was prevented from some of the work she liked to be involved in, she tried her best to free herself from her husband’s demands and developed her own interests.

When her poem, Battle Hymn of the Republic, was published in 1861 after she and her husband visited Washington D.C. and there met Abraham Lincoln at The White House, she became an instant celebrity and the poem became a national anthem of sorts.

In 1870, she first proclaimed Mother’s Day, which she envisioned as a day of solemn council where women from all over the world discuss about the means to achieve world peace. From 1872 to 1879, she helped Lucy Stone and Henry Brown Blackwell in editing Woman’s Journal.

In 1874 after her husband died, she focused more on her interests in reform.  She founded the Association of American Women which advocated for womens’ education.  She also worked for various organizations like the New England Womens’ Club, the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association, the New England Suffrage Association, and the American Woman suffrage Association. 

In 1908, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters as the first woman.

Julia Ward Howe died in 1910 at her home, Oak Glen in Rhode Island, at the age of 91.  Her funeral services were held at Church of the Disciples and at Symphony Hall by overflowing crowds.  

In 1916, her children collaborated and published her biography and it won the Pulitzer Prize.

By Yoon Joung Lee

Writer and African American activist, Maya Angelou was born in 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri and raised in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas.   She spent her difficult formative years moving back and forth between her mother’s and grandmother’s.

During her early years in Stamps, she experienced brutality from racial discrimination. But, she also learned the unshakable faith of African-American society and their values.When she was 8, her mother’s boyfriend raped her.   The mother’s boyfriend got killed by her uncles later, but the event caused her to go mute for almost 6 years.

During her teens and early twenties, her love for the arts made it possible to win a scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco’s Labor School.  The arts for this little girl filled with her with isolation and experimentation.

At 14, she dropped out of school and became San Francisco’s first African-American female cable car conductor.  
She later finished high school and gave birth to a son, Guy, at age 16, a few weeks after graduation.  To support her son, as a young single mother, she worked as a waitress and cook. But nothing could stop her passion for music, dance, performance and poetry; which would soon take her center stage.

From 1954 to 1955, she toured Europe and Africa as part of the musical, Porgy and Bess. She studied modern dance with Martha Graham who was a prominent American modern dancer, often compared with the influence Picasso had on modern visual arts.  She was also on a variety of TV shows with Alvin Ailey, who is a founder of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in NY and is credited with popularizing modern dance.

In 1957, she recorded her first album, Calypso Lady. In 1960s, she returned to New York City to join the Harlem Writers Guild.  There, she began her life as an actress in the historic Off-Broadway production of Jean Genet’s The Blacks and wrote and performed Cabaret for Freedom.  She became involved in black activism. In 1957, she recorded her first album, Calypso Lady. 

In 1960s, she returned to New York City to join the Harlem Writers Guild.  There, she began her life as an actress in the historic Off-Broadway production of Jean Genet’s The Blacks and wrote and performed Cabaret for Freedom.  She became involved in black activism. In 1960, she went to Egypt to serve as editor of the English language weekly, The Arab Observer.  The next year, she moved to Ghana to teach at the University of Ghana’s School of Music and Drama.  She also worked as feature editor for The African Review and wrote for The Ghanaian Times.  During her time abroad, she mastered various languages; French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and the West African language Fanti, and she began to take her life, her activism and her writing more seriously.

In 1964, she came back to America with Malcolm X, who she met in Ghana, to help him establish his new Organization of African American Unity.

However, not too long after their arrival in the United States, Malcolm X was assassinated.  The organization dissolved and Dr. Angelou was asked to serve as Northern Coordinator for Southern Christian Leadership Conference by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1968, around her birthday, King was assassinated.

With the help of her friend, the novelist James Baldwin, she published her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, in 1970. The novel tells of her first seventeen years.  It earned enormous popular success internationally and was nominated for a National Book Award.

Without her intention of writing a series, she wrote five additional volumes.

Drawing from her own life experience in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, she became the first African American woman who publicly shared her personal life and she is highly respected as a voice for African Americans.

She has served on two presidential committees, received the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000, and the Lincoln Medal in 2008.  She also has received 2 Grammy Awards.

In 1993, President Clinton requested her to compose a poem and read at his inauguration.  Her poem, On the Pulse of the Morning, was broadcast live all over the world.

Dr. Angelou will not stop energizing our spirits and bodies as well as healing our hearts by her words and actions.

Yoon Joung Lee

Elouise Cobell, called Yellow Bird Woman in Blackfeet, was born in 1945 in Montana.  Her great grandfather was the tribe’s famous leader, Mountain Chief.  She received education from Great Falls Business College before she went to Seattle to work as an accountant.  She married there and returned to Montana with her husband to work the land on her family’s ranch.

While growing up on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Northwest Montana, she often heard her family and neighbors question why they were not being paid for letting others use their land.  The Indians received little or no payment, though the land was placed in trust with the promise that owners would be paid royalties for oil and gas, grazing or recreational leases.



When she became treasurer of the tribe in 1976 with her background and experience in accounting, she became outraged as she dug more into how much money the government had misused.  What made her even more upset was that the people the money belonged to were living in dire poverty on the Blackfeet reservation in Northwestern Montana.

She found out that the money was misused and mismanaged since 1880, with amounts owed to the Blackfeet tribe being worth up to hundreds of billions of dollars.

After over 14 years of tenacious efforts; 3,600  court filings; 220 days of trial; 80 published court decisions and 10 appeals, Elouise Cobell’s campaign ended in victory in 2009 with the 3.4-billion settlement. Although the sum awarded did not match her own estimation-as high as $27.5billion- of the stolen money from Indians by the American government, this is the largest government class-action settlement in American history.

She was declared a warrior of the Blackfeet Nation and presented with an eagle feather during a tribal ritual in 2000.

Without her tenacity and endless effort, it’s for sure there would have been no recognition of misdeeds in the world and compensation  to soothe down the anger of mistreated Indians. Hopefully, the standard she set will continue.

A hero of Native Americans, Elouise Cobell, died at a hospital in Great Falls, Montana by complications from cancer on Oct 17, 2011.  She was 65.

by Yoon Joung Lee

Magazine Vogue editor, Anna Wintour, was born in November 3, 1949 in London, England to a family with considerable wealth.  She was the oldest child.  Her father, Charles Wintour was an editor for the London Evening Standard and her mother, Elinor Wintour, was a philanthropist.

From her early age, she demonstrated her interest in fashion and she did everything her own way.  During North London Collegiate School, she wore skirts taken up at the hemlines to rebel against the school’s dress code. The is also when she first bobbed her hair, a style she still maintains.  

In 1970, she began her first career in fashion journalism.   She was hired as an editorial assistant for Harper’s & Queen.  



In 1975, she moved to New York City to take over as a junior fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar.  Soon after she left Harper’s to work for Viva, a women’s adult magazine started by Kathy Keeton who managed Penthouse.  At Viva, she started to reveal her own sense of fashion and direction and became a high-end managing editor.

In 1980, for a short period of time, she worked for Savvy, a new womens’ magazine appealing to career-conscious professional women who spend their own money.

The next year, she became a fashion editor of New York.  There, her work finally started attracting attention.

In 1986, she married David Shaffer, South African psychiatrist and returned back to London to serve British Vogue as a chief editor.

In 1987, she returned to New York to work for House & Garden.  Due to its rival Architectural Digest, the company wanted to give her a chance to improve it.  She made radical changes on HG, but the changes didn’t make the magazine’s financial situation any better.  

She didn’t stay at HG too long. About a year later in 1988, she became an editor for Vogue.  As an editor, she made innovative changes, such as adding articles about women in politics and street culture.   She also called an end to the supermodel era.  She picked celebrities for covers with mix low-end fashion items.  She introduced not only well-known designers but also newer designers and their styles.

In recent years, she has become a powerful broker between designers and retailers. She is very competitive like all people who represent the best of what they do.   Although she developed a reputation for being cold and aloof, she is a sweet mother of two kids at home and seeks perfection in her profession.

By Yoon Joung Lee

One of Japan’s greatest novelists during the Heian period and the author of The Tale of Gengi, Murasaki Shikibu was born c. 973 in Kyoto, Japan into the Fukiwara family, whose men dominated the highest positions in the imperial government.

During her childhood, she was very smart and intelligent.  She always learned things more quickly than her brother.  Therefore, her father allowed her to study with her brother, although it was inappropriate to educate women as much as men at that time.



In 966 in her early 20s, she married her father’s friend Fujiwara no Nobutake who was a much older distant cousin.  In 999, her only daughter was born.  Two years later in 1001, her husband died.  In 1006 not too long after her husband’s death, she was brought to court for her outstanding talent on writing stories and her brilliant mind.

While she was in court, she wrote a diary showing a vivid account of court life and her thoughts.  It is not clear whether she started The Tale of the Genji before or after she came to court.  However, much of her work was written in court. 

This long novel relveals the complications of a fictitious prince, Genji, his life and his amorous adventures. The story pictures Japanese court life during the Heian period.  There are also the portraits of the women in Prince Genji’s life in the novel and they are described individually with their different talents such as music, drawing, and poetry.  The conclusion reveals a Buddhist point of view to enjoy life and earthly existence.  The Tale of Gengi was copied and transferred to many different languages worldwide. It is speculated to be the world's first novel. 

Although it is not certain about the date of her death, she likely passed away shortly after she completed the famous novel, The Tale of Genji, at the age of forty or so.

Yoon Joung Lee

Many people remember about Anne Frank. But, far fewer know about Miep Gies. Miep Gies was one of the Dutch citizens who hid Frank’s family and several family friends in the secret room above her business place during World War II. She later discovered Anne Frank’s diary after the Franks were arrested.

Miep Gies was born in 1909 in Vienna. She spent her childhood with poverty and disease. When she was 12, she suffered from tuberculosis and poor nutrition. She was sent to a family in Amsterdam to escape the food shortages in Austria. The family made modest income and they welcomed her although they already had five children. She grew up sharing everything with her Dutch foster family and was significantly influenced by their values.

She was helped by her family when she was in trouble and she believed that it is our human duty to help those who are in trouble. Therefore, she willingly helped the Franks when they asked for help.

During their years of hiding, Miep provided all of their daily material needs, such as food, clothing and books. Also, she provided not only their material needs, as she played the role of bridge with the outside world.

In 1944, her heroic feat of humanitarianism ended as the people hidden in Miep’s attic were arrested. The Frank family was betrayed by a person whose identity remains unknown. Before the authorities emptied the attic after the arrest, Miep found Anne’s diary and kept it in her desk drawer.

Even after the arrest, her efforts did not stop. She met the Austrian SS officer who had arrested them and she tried to bribe them to release her friends. She also visited Nazi headquarters to negotiate a deal. However, none of them was successful.

She safely kept Anne’s diary and expected her to return when the war ended. Their father Otto returned from Auschwitz and he believed his two daughters had survived although his wife and friends had not.  However, they learned of Anne’s death in Bergen-Belsen by a letter confirming that both daughters had died in March 1945, less than a few weeks before the camp was liberated by British soldiers.

Miep gave a diary to Otto and it was published in 1947. The book, The Diary of Anne Frank, became the top best seller in the non-fiction genre after the bible in the world.

For the rest of her life, Miep Gies devote herself to spreading out her legacy over the world. While she was taking a risk with her own life, she protected and cared for the Jews from the Nazis for more than two years. The heart of her character represented moral courage and modesty.

She died at the age of 100 in the Netherlands in 2010.

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Yoon Joung Lee

A former professional tennis player, Billie Jean King, was born in 1943 in Long Beach, California.  She grew up in a conservative Methodist family.  Her father was an engineer for the fire department and her mother was a housewife.  Her brother, Randy Moffitt became a baseball player whose major leagues were the San Francisco Giants, Houston Astros, and Toronto Blue Jays. Billie Jean attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School and graduated from California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA).

She developed an interest in tennis when she was 11.  She saved her money to buy her first racket and started to play tennis at the public courts near her house.  She was taught by Clyde Walker, a fine tennis teacher.  When she was 14, she won her first championship in a southern California tournament.  She also received coaching from Alice Marble who was a famous player from the 1930s.  In 1962, she won acclaim after capturing the women’s doubles title at Wimbledon.  In 1965 not too long after her tennis career began, she married Lawrence King.  However, their marriage ended in 1987 because she found out that she was interested in women. During her marriage in the 1970s, she had an intimate relationship with her secretary, Marilyn Barnett.  And King became the first prominent American athlete with an openly gay relationship

From 1962 to 1979, she won 20 Wimbledon titles including the singles in 1955~ 1968, 1972~1873.  She also earned 13 US titles, four French titles, and two Australian titles.

Off the courts, she worked for women’s liberation (the feminist movement) and for equal prize money for men and women.  In 1973, she organized the campaign called, Battle of the Sexes, to match against a tennis champ, Bobby Riggs, who claimed that women cannot beat men in sports.  Riggs lost the match against King. This campaign gained considerable publicity worldwide and she became a feminist icon.  From 1973 to 1981, she founded the Women’s Tennis Association and became the first president of the association. In 1987, she was also selected in the International Tennis Hall of Fame and served as a captain of the United States Fed Cup team during 1990s.

In 1995, she joined the Virginia Slims, the first professional women’s tour with Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova to raise fund for fight against AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome.  She is also currently associated with the sports broadcaster, teacher and coach for professional teams in the U.S.   From 1999 to 2000, she taught the US  women’s team.

by Yoon Joung Lee



Cheng I Sao started her first career as a beautiful Chinese prostitute called Shih Yang. In 1801, she married Cheng Yi, who was a notorious Chinese pirate captain. Cheng Yi’s family were successful pirates tracing their criminal origins back to the 17th Century.Cheng I Sao and Cheng Yi adopted a son named Chang Pao.



In 1807, Cheng’s I Sao’s husband died and left a united pirate coalition numbering 400 ships and over 70,000 sailors. She took over the fleet after some political maneuvering. The fleet, under her leadership, increased in size and dominance, occupying many coastal villages.

She fell into an affair with her lieutenant and adoptive son and married the lieutenant and cemented the family’s hold on the fleet. Chang Pao led the pirates to battle while his adoptive mother controlled the strategy of the family’s piracy business.

She managed the fleet with very strictly enforced laws and commands given by the
leaders of the fleet. She re-established piracy code to deal out harsher penalties than before. They often committed various piracy acts including attacking the traditional merchant ships and pillaging villages along rivers. The Chinese government tried to stop the pirates during a series of battles in 1808. However, the government failed.

In 1810, Cheng I Sao retired from piracy and opened a gambling house in Guangzhou. She sought a pardon from the Chinese government and received grants after her rival pirates called O-po-tae sought a pardon from the government and received grants.

She died peacefully, as a grandmother, at the age of 69 in 1844 and Chang Pao spent the rest of his life comfortably while working for the government.