A sure measure of fame comes when someone speaks your name and surrounding people don’t ask, “Who?”

Names of three famous women from Gloucester and Mathews immediately spring to mind, and they span four centuries: Pocahontas, Sally Tompkins, Irene Morgan. These are women of distinction and distinct achievement. They belong to the ages; they started here.

Every one of us can think of a strong woman in our lives: mothers, teachers, nurses in the traditional roles, now expanded to every description of society.

We had suffragettes, when women sought the right to vote; we had women in the Army during the world wars, serving as officers and lifesavers; we had women in state government and local government. Fortunately the time has passed when the Gazette-Journal reported on the “first woman” to do something: first woman registering to vote; first woman on a jury; first woman in a pulpit.

Honor the trailblazers. They have helped to level the playing field for half of the populati...