The Takoma Park women profiled here were prominent between 1930 and 1970. In several cases they paired up, expanding their influence. Part 1 (women prominent in earlier Takoma Park history) is found here.
Ruth Pratt in 1934
In 1934, Ruth Pratt stepped down as President of the Women’s Club to become chair of the Library Trust Association of Takoma Park. Her mission was to create an independent town library. On July 15, 1935, Ruth welcomed one and all to Takoma Park’s first library in a tiny house at 801 Jackson Avenue. After earning a library degree in 1940, Pratt was officially named the City’s librarian along with a $60/month salary. For the next 20-plus years, she led the effort to gather books, find a home for the collection, set up a library system, and garner financial support from residents and the City.
Ruth Pratt, 1960
Before retiring in 1963, she shepherded the library through moves to 310 Carroll and 8 Sherman Avenues and finally into its permanent home at Philadelphia and Maple Avenues in 1955.
From the beginning, Ruth Pratt’s chief ally was Cora Robertson, the first resident to suggest a town library. The two implemented their vision of an independent library with space for community gatherings and children’s activities. As chief volunteer, Robertson efficiently catalogued each new book for decades. Along with Pratt, she resisted all suggestions of merger into the County system until her death in 1960. Just before Pratt retired in 1963, an agreement was reached whereby the City took over library operations, making it a City Department. It is worth noting that Robertson made a brief foray into politics, running for City Council in the 1940s and losing by only a handful of votes.
In 1940, Cynthia Warner and her husband moved her recently-opened nursery school into the three-story Victorian, now at 8114 Carroll Avenue. Each year she added a grade so students could attend the school through 12th grade. The Cynthia Warner School followed a classical studies curriculum mixed with May Day festivities and Christmas pageants.
Cynthia Warner, 1968
Unlike other private schools, the student body was racially mixed and came from middle- and lower-income households. Financial problems developed when Warner retired in 1981, and despite efforts by teachers and parents, the school was forced to close. In 1991 the original house was moved one lot south to make way for a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. First a bed-and-breakfast and then a religious mission, the house is now a private residence.
Emily Monitor broke Takoma Park’s political ceiling with her election to the Takoma Park Council in 1956. She prevailed over John Roth by seven votes to claim one of two seats for Prince George’s residents. Previous to her election, she had been active in local PTAs and a member of the greater Takoma Park Recreation Council. That interest in children’s activities led to her chairing the Council’s Recreation Committee. Several years after Monitor gave up her seat in 1960, the City created a formal Recreation Department, led by another notable woman, Belle Ziegler.
In 1956, Belle Ziegler arrived in Takoma Park as a single mom with two kids. She took a job with the City which included overseeing city playgrounds. Her role expanded until, in 1967, she was named the first director of the newly created City Recreation Department. She joined with Lee Jordan and others to expand athletics, while also organizing Halloween and Easter celebrations, and opening the Fire Station gym for roller skating and teen dances. Her biggest efforts, however, were on behalf of the City’s long-standing Independence Day celebrations.
Belle Zeigler – in July 4 parade
Even after Ziegler retired from her city job in 1890, she remained the heart and soul of Takoma’s Fourth of July parade until her death in 2008.
Belle Ziegler and Jequie Park. For ten years, beginning in 1963, Zieglerwas also the driving force behind Takoma’s Sister City cultural exchange program with Jequie, Brazil. She spearheaded the fundraising and became “second mom” to the Brazilian exchange students. Her daughter spent a year in Jequie. In 1966 she motivated the City to name the park at Takoma and Albany Avenues as Jequie Park. Forty- four years later in 2010 the park was renamed Belle Ziegler Park.
Opal Daniels and her family moved to Sherman Avenue in 1946. As a young mom she organized outdoor activities for her two children, first with PTA, then as Girl Scout leader for her daughter Kay.
Opal Daniels
Her work with the Girls Scouts continued for 40 years. When the Boy Scout organization refused to accept her son’s integrated Cub Scout troop, she seceded and set up her own Explorers Club for neighborhood kids. Meanwhile, Daniels expanded her focus to the county with her appointment to the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, where she spent 25 years lobbying for more and better parks.
When she died in 1983, neighbors rounded up 400 signatures to rename their neighborhood park off Carroll Avenue in her honor.
When Belle Ziegler arrivedin 1956, Daniels paired up with her new neighbor to recruit, cajole, corral, and entice every resident in the city to volunteer for or donate money to community activities. They greeted every new family on Sherman Avenue with a welcome call asking how they wanted to volunteer.
Daniel’s daughter Kay Daniels Cohen took up her mom’s role as community organizer with infectious enthusiasm. She revived her neighborhood association, celebrated 4th of July dressed head-to-toe in red, white and blue, and promoted Play Days for kids. Upon her election as Ward 3 City Councilmember, she began awarding Gold Stars to residents who helped others, a practice she continued until her untimely death in 2014.
Women with Connections to Takoma Park
Rachel Carson, the mother of environmentalism, first discovered Sligo Creek in 1943, while briefly renting a house in Takoma Park where Maple Avenue met the creek.
The years of The Sea Around Us(1951) and Silent Spring(1962) lay ahead, but they were inspired by her continuing connection to Sligo Creek. Note: Carson’s grand-nephew attended Cynthia Warner School, and Carson shared her work with the students.
Katherine Paterson
Author Katherine Paterson wrote several award-winning children’s books during the years from 1968 to 1981 when her husband John served as pastor of Takoma Park Presbyterian Church. The most personal was the young-adult novel Bridge to Terabithia. Although set in West Virginia, the events took place in Takoma Park. Her son’s best friend in second grade at Takoma Elementary was Lisa Hall, who died in a freak accident in the summer of 1974. He was devastated. Paterson wrote the novel in an effort to grapple with the aftermath of that tragic loss. The book was awarded the Newbery Medal for 1978.
Goldie Hawn grew up on Cleveland Avenue in North Takoma, as reflected in her autobiography, A Lotus Grows in the Mud. She took her first dance lessons as a child in Takoma Park on her way to TV and movie stardom, and many classmates at Montgomery Blair High School (Class of 1963) remember her stealing the show in several musicals. Hawn was inducted into Blair’s Alumni Hall of Fame in 2009.
Goldie Hawn, with Blair yearbook photo
In 1996, Takoma Park pulled out all the stops to welcome home Dominique Dawes, the 19-year old Olympic champion gymnast. As one of the “Magnificent Seven,” she was part of the drama that earned America its first Olympic gold medal in team gymnastics. Dawes also made history herself that day as the first black woman gymnast of any nationality to earn Olympic gold. Together with previous landmark wins, she created a path for the rise of Gabby Douglas and Simone Biles. Discovering gymnastics at age six, Dawes split her childhood between school in Takoma Park and training mostly in Gaithersburg, before taking the world stage.
Dominique Dawes and her medals
She retired in 2000 (after a third Olympics and bronze team medal) to advocate for the value of fitness and self-esteem for all children. From 2010 to 2016 she co-chaired Obama’s President’s Council for Fitness, Sports & Nutrition. Dawes recently opened her own Gymnastics Academy in Clarksburg dedicated to making fitness fun for all kids.
