Notable Women in El Paso History from the 1920s-1970s : Athletes, Artists, and Writers.

Celebration of Women’s History Month.

by Joseph Longo

: Aurelia Phillips competed and won championships not just in El Paso, but all around the Southwest. Phillips was an El Paso City Tennis Singles Title Champion from 1928 to 1941. She won the Doubles titles 12 times and with George Cound and Russell Ball, she won mixed doubles twice. She also competed in the Southwestern and New Mexico State event and earned over 50 titles in nineteen years. Phillips retired from tennis after a knee injury in 1947. In 1955, she wasappointed manager at the El Paso Tennis Club, serving until her retirement in 1966. Credit: El Paso Times

: Margaret Osbourne Dupont became one of the leading tennis players in the U.S. She won the United States National Open Tennis championships at Forrest Hills, Queens, New York in 1948, 1949, and 1950. She won the French Open Singles in 1946, 1947 and 1948. Photo Credit: El Paso Times

: She won the French Open Singles in 1946, 1947 and 1948. DuPont won 13 National Titles, 9 mixed doubles titles, and 25 U.S. Nationals, an all-time record

: In 1944 Margaret Varner Bloss won the TIL State Tennis Singles Championship and the National Girls Doubles Championships with Jean Dokes. Bloss won the doubles titles again in 1945..

: Mary Cunningham Hoover,Hoover started playing golf, with a 19 handicap. She held a course record at the golf course at the Coronado County Club. Hoover won 39 non-handicapped golf tournaments in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. In 1941 she started playing tennis and won a national doubles championship in 1946.Hoover was ranked 7th nationally in singles and was a member of the Junior Wightman Cup Team. Hoover was inducted into the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame in 1974 Photo Credit: University of Arizona Hall of Fame

: Frances Vance, wife of Dr. James Vance. Mrs. Vance came in second in the first Women’s Southwestern Championship Golf Tournament at El Paso Country Club in 1928. Vance won a woman’s invitational tournament in 1925. In 1926, Vance won the Championship Golf Tournament at El Paso Country Club, winning a silver flower bowl El Paso Herald Post.

: Reba Armstrong was the first El Paso woman to win the Women’s Southwestern Golf Association’s tournament championship title in 1930. Armstrong won the Cloudcoft Tournament in 1931. Armstrong was one of the first members of the El Paso’s Golf Hall of Fame. She broke records at El Paso Country Club, scoring in the high 70s. Armstrong won nine golf championships from 1928 to 1930. She set course records in 1930, 1933, 1935 and 1936. Armstrong finished second in a state championship tournament in New Mexico. Armstrong was the first woman to play in an El Paso male tournament

: First Aviatrix to come to El Paso was Katherine Stinson Otero . She landed at Cineque Park in 1913. Photo Credit: El Paso Public library

: Patricia McCormick broke down barriers for women and Americans in the machismo world of Spanish bullfighting.

: Patricia first got interested in bullfighting in her youth,while seeing a bullfight in Mexico City with her parents.

: Patricia debuted in the Juarez bullring on Sep 9,1951. Patricia joined the Mexico matador union and in 1952, the first american women to do so She .was one of the first women in Mexico to be allowed to perform in the same manner as men. She was gored by bulls six times,but survived pitted one time,she was expected to die. Sep 11,1951 Photo Credit: El Paso Times

: While attending Texas Western Patricia rediscovered her love and passion for bullfighting just across the border in Juarez. Photo Credit: El Paso Times

: Elise Jean Staudenmayer became a trick rider, winning many competitions with her prize horse named Eagle. It was while in Brownsville, while showing Eagle off at a fair, that Walter Adams asked her to come to El Paso to train horses at the famous Cowboy Rodeo Park on Polo Road in Ysleta.A group called the Rough Riders was also found there. She stayed in El Paso, and in 1939 she worked as assign marker and clerk for Kress Department Store. In 1940 she was hired to work for S.D. Myres, a famous saddle maker. Initially, she was a saleswoman but eventually trained under Myers, becoming a well-accomplished leather carver and saddle maker. Many of the saddles, boots,and other creations she madewere used as awards in rodeos and other competitions. Jean also designed a medal for El Mada Shrine. She lived in North Loop Gardens and had her own workshop. She also ran a phonograph record shop near her ranch

: Virginia Storm Turner started working as a cub reporter for the El Paso Herald-Post in 1944 and in 1959 was promoted to city managing editor, becoming the first woman city editor in the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain. She retired in 1976 but continued to write columns on the city’s history and personalities. Photo Credit: UTEP Library Special Collections , Virginia Turner Papers Ms 484

: Photo Credit: UTEP Library Special Collections , Virginia Turner Papers Ms 484

: Mattie Primrose Dillard paid the first payment for the construction of the Elephant Butte Dam. The Graves bought a farm that was 1 mile north of Ysleta in 1906. The graves named their 30 acres farm “El Nido.” There they farmed 15 acres of pears, 17 acres of alfalfa and 1 acre of roses. Mattie became a prominent rose grower in El Paso. Mattie raised 30 varies of roses. In 1922 Mattie won blue ribbons at the El Paso Flower show. Graves presented a floral arrangement that included 12 varieties of roses that were presented at the International Soil Products Exposition held in El Paso, this won her a blue ribbon. Graves won numerous awards not just for her roses but for her painting. Graves painted famous El Paso landmarks like the Old Ysleta Mission and the Old Stone Courthouse at Ysleta. She held an art show exhibiting her painting at the Ysleta Women’s Club Community Center in 1935. Other paintings exhibited included paintings of the old Fort Bliss and of Billy the Kid. In 1962, she had one a man show at the Maud Sullivan Gallery at the El Paso Main Library. Graves also painted landscapes. Graves served as president of the Ysleta Women’s club and oversaw construction of club house across Ysleta High School on Alameda El Paso Public Library

: Grace Smith designed the dresses for the sun carnival. She was also a well known artist. El Paso Times