Cleveland Women
My passion is to find sheroes (and other folks overlooked by history) in places I live and visit, and write about what they did to make their spot on the planet better. I hope this inspires readers and walkers on the shero walks I lead or solo walks readers take.
BUT: While I much appreciate all that sheroes did and do, I always remind others that it’s the ordinary sheroes who carry out the work that must be done to make better happen. An army of individuals amplify the good message and then do what’s needed. And so too should they be given their spotlight and thanked for their contributions.
Katherine is my Cleveland Shero—she’s on the right giving me bunny ears.
Who is your shero? I dedicate my overview of many sheroic Cleveland women to a badass Cleveland woman and my beloved friend, Katherine Kratz. Sadly, she recently passed on and is, I trust, living it up in the Great Beyond. We met many moons ago in Minneapolis and bonded instantly. Our years there together were suffused in laughter and lively discussions, as were conversations and get-togethers in years after we both left the Twin Cities for other places.
Katherine lived out her commitment to social justice, especially feminism, by fearlessly sharing her thoughts and actions about it, even with unreceptive audiences. She worked hard for her causes, making time on top of her intense job of counseling people in therapy and her time devoted to her son Leon and making a life with her husband Mark.
Just a few examples: She spent countless hours working to get Ohioans to vote for President Obama; has raised her voice in protest against many wrongs; and for years, she has given much of her time off to make sure her neighbors are fed at the local food bank.
I will greatly miss her, but I treasure the memories of us walking around various Twin Cities lakes, raging at and posing solutions to all that’s wrong, and laughing at whatever goofiness we’d invented. I’ll miss our adventuring and admire the adventuring she did in spades by traveling the world, volunteering, and working.
I’ll continue talking with her when I’m out on my walks in nature. Because it’s the talking she did, with me and family and friends and her therapy clients, that is a gift to the world. Talking is a great asset that many women (and some men) exercise, because it’s how we can know people better. Then we can lift and encourage them so they can also be the change they want in the world.
Thanks for this and everything else, Katherine—luvya so much!
And reader, please salute your sheroic self for all you do, and make sure your sheroes know that they are sheroes!
WOMEN OF DOWNTOWN CLEVELAND
Please enjoy this somewhat subjective look at women who’ve made Cleveland better. I’ve organized the first section—a look at awesome women in the downtown area—as a walk of about two miles. The rest of my spots are more spread out and best done by car. The stops take you to places where wonderful women did their thing in a few neighborhoods close to downtown Cleveland. Enjoy!
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, 1100 E. 9th St.
Guess how many women were inducted the year that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame began in 1986? ZERO. And get this: There were also SIX subsequent years that the boys in charge just could not find one single female to honor. The last sausage-only year was as recently as 2016!
Aretha, Carole, Joni, Celia, Dolly, Tina: Love them, and love to see more women!
Women are still barely 9% of musicians honored. BUT visitors now have a range of women to honor when they visit. Just a sampling: Aretha Franklin (the first inducted); Joni Mitchell; Tina Turner; Carole King; Celia Cruz; and Dolly Parton included among the 90 women there.
Jane with The Who
AND we all should honor the woman who gets a statue in the Hall of Fame: Jane Scott, Cleveland Plain Dealer music reporter. Musicians NEED reporters to get their work to the public, and Jane was the first to cover and boost rock n’ roll.
That’s after she was a WWII Navy cryptographer, btw. She not only interviewed all the rock stars—she became lifelong friends with many. Jimi Hendrix asked her to help him pick out a blue Corvette! AND she worked hard to make the Hall of Fame happen. Her funeral in 2011 at the Hall of Fame was swamped by over 900 fans.