March is Women's History Month
GERONIMA WILSON
Geronima Wilson was born in Picuris Pueblo in Taos County, New Mexico. She moved to Colorado Springs in 1960 after graduating from nursing school in Santa Fe. She left her position at Penrose Hospital in 1965 to raise her family and preserve and share American Indian heritage through community involvement.
Wilson was a founding member of the Lone Feather Council, established in 1971 to provide scholarship funds to American Indian students. The nonprofit shared and celebrated American Indian heritage and culture through educational outreach and fundraising events. During her 36 years with the organization, Wilson held leadership positions, organized pow-wows, and sold her famous fry bread at local events from the Lone Feather Fry Bread booth.
As a member of the Lowell School PTA, Wilson helped to establish extracurricular programs at the school that taught children American Indian heritage through classes in beadwork, leatherwork, loom-work and silverwork. Geronima Wilson died at the age of 80 in 2007, but her legacy lives on.
BEE VRADENBURG
Beatrice “Bee” Vradenburg was born in 1922 in Manhattan, Kansas, and grew up in Washington, D.C. A childhood love of art and music led her to study art history at Oberlin College in Ohio, where she met her future husband, George Vradenburg Jr. They married in 1942 and four years later, after George’s service in World War II, they moved to Colorado Springs, which would remain their home until Bee’s death in 2000.
For five decades, Bee’s passion and persistence transformed the cultural climate of Colorado Springs. Friends and colleagues referred to “the Bee factor”: Bee’s unceasing ability to tackle new endeavors with gusto and achieve goals others thought impossible.
Under the nearly four decades of leadership Bee provided as general manager of the Colorado Springs Symphony Orchestra, the organization grew from a fledgling music group with an annual budget of $25,000 to a nationally recognized orchestra with a budget of $2 million that always operated in the black.
But Bee’s commitment to the Colorado Springs community extended beyond symphonic music. Her proudest achievement was shepherding the capital campaign and construction of the $14 million Pikes Peak Center for the Performing Arts, which opened in 1982 and remains the cultural cornerstone of the city.
Bee retired from the Colorado Springs Symphony Orchestra in 1990, but her leadership and initiative in the arts community continued until her death.
GRETCHEN MCRAE
Gretchen McRae was born in Mount Airy, North Carolina, in 1898. After the death of her mother in 1903, Gretchen moved to Colorado Springs with her two older sisters, Carye and Almena, maternal grandmother Lucy J. Hopper and father Bonaparte P. McRae. The family lived on South Weber Street and graduated from Colorado Springs High School in 1917. After graduation she moved to Washington D.C. and became a clerk and stenographer with the Department of Interior.
While working in government employment, Gretchen experienced discrimination and segregation in the workplace. She began writing letters of protest to the Secretary of the Interior and other top officials but received very few responses and no solutions. In October 1928 she resigned in protest. That November she attended the national NAACP conference as a delegate and began to speak and write publicly about her experiences and championing civil rights.
In 1937, her grandmother became seriously ill and Gretchen returned home to Colorado Springs to care for her. Shortly afterward, she began to publish A Free Republic, a magazine dedicated to civil rights issues. In 1943, McRae became the first Black woman to run for a seat on the Colorado Springs City Council. Finishing seventh out of seven candidates, McRae nevertheless continued to advocate for equality until her death in December 1978.
ANGELA AVILA
Angela Garcia Avila was born in a small mountainous town in Mexico to Primitivo Garcia and Maria Olmos Garcia. One of eight children, she went on to study teaching and regional dance at university. While in college, she met Benito Avila, a U.S. citizen living in Mexico. After graduation the two were both assigned to teach in the same school and they married shortly thereafter. After their second child was born, Benito was drafted in the U.S. Army and served in World War II and the Korean War.
After arriving in the United States, Angela Avila shared her love of dance, food, music, and culture with everyone she met. When Benito was stationed at Fort Carson in 1958, Angela fell in love with Pikes Peak and announced that this is where she wanted to settle. As she did in other places the family was stationed, she introduced the cultural festival and traditions of Mexico to Colorado Springs. She taught traditional dancing for years and was a cultural influence and inspiration to generations of local residents.
HELEN HUNT JACKSON
Helen Hunt Jackson was a famous 19th century American author whose 12 years in Colorado Springs were the most productive of her career. She arrived in 1873 an invalid in search of health, and a woman who had suffered a devastating series of losses. She was an orphan, a widow and a childless mother. In Colorado Springs she built a new life and discovered the cause she championed until her death in 1885.
A prolific author in a variety of genres including poetry, travel writing and domestic essays, Jackson insisted publishers pay her well. Her work appeared in Scribner’s, Century Magazine, Harper’s and the Atlantic among others. She was financially independent and maintained a tight circle of literary friends, most of whom were reform-minded. However, Jackson claimed to detest “women with a cause” and found them tiresome.
Perhaps no one was more surprised than Helen when she “found a cause” in 1879. For the next six years, Jackson worked feverishly as an advocate for American Indian rights in an era when it was unpopular to do so. She declared to William, “…I am stirred to the core…I do feel as earnest & solemn a ‘call’ as ever a human being felt to work for this cause.” At first Helen Hunt Jackson was a writer who used words to overcome grief. In doing so, she changed her life. Later, she used words to champion the rights of American Indians. In doing so, she changed the world.
NANCY LEWIS
Nancy was born in Blair, Nebraska, on December 28, 1938, to Edith Hazel and Kenneth Adam George. She moved to Colorado Springs in 1958.
Serving the City of Colorado Springs for 27 years in a variety of capacities, Nancy started in 1966 as a part-time recreation leader and moved up the ranks to become the first female director of Department of Parks and Recreation in 1987.
In the early 1990s, Nancy began working on solutions for the renowned Garden of the Gods Park. Over decades the park had fallen into disrepair with outdated facilities, eroding trails, confusing roads and overuse by ever-increasing numbers of visitors.
Nancy was not afraid to try new things and test new models. She initiated the 1993-1994 Master Plan to try to tackle all of the Garden’s problems at the same time – a very ambitious undertaking. Plans for new trails, traffic patterns, reclamation of eroded areas and improved maintenance and hope for a new Visitor Center were made, but the City of Colorado Springs had no budget for the work.
Through an innovative partnership with entrepreneur and philanthropist Lyda Hill, the two visionary women created a public/private partnership to build a stunning new Visitor Center on Lyda’s private property adjacent to the park and created the Garden of the Gods Foundation to fund maintenance for the crown jewel of the city’s park system.
In the 25 years since the Visitor Center opened in 1995, it has hosted 16.7 million visitors, and the Foundation has contributed over $5 million to the Garden of the Gods Park. During the same time, the Park’s visitation has grown from approximately 1.5 million visitors in 1995 to 5.8 million visitors in 2019. Our entire community, and the millions of yearly visitors to the Garden of the Golds can be thankful to Nancy Lewis and her leadership.
VERA GANG SCOTT
In 1956 Vera Gang Scott was the second African American school teacher hired in Colorado Springs. Born in Mississippi and raised in Galveston, Texas, Vera received her undergraduate degree from St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1935 and earned her Master’s Degree in Social Work from Boston University in 1938. She moved to Cincinnati to begin her career in the early 1940s, and while there met and married Cecil Scott. After World War II they lived in Baltimore and then Chicago, where her husband Cecil became ill and died.
Cecil Scott was originally from Colorado Springs, and after his death Vera moved herself and her father here.
After relocating to Colorado Springs in the 1950s, she went back to school to acquire a teaching certificate and elementary education credentials. Vera was hired to teach social science and English at West Junior High School. While still at West, Vera later became the city’s first Black school social worker. In 1969 she was transferred to Garfield Elementary School as District 11’s first African American principal. After working for School District 11 for 20 years, Vera Gang Scott retired and began volunteering with troubled youth among other community activities.
MARGE VASQUEZ
Margaret “Marge” Manuelito Manzanares was born in Redwing, Colorado, in 1938. In May 1959 she married Joe D. “Lolo” Vasquez. The couple had two children, Derek and Darin, and moved to Colorado Springs in 1966. They owned and operated the Bean Bandit Mexican Restaurant, originally located at 1919 East Boulder, which then moved to East Platte, and eventually opened in their permanent location of 320 North Circle Drive.
Recognizing her significant contributions as an entrepreneur and community advocate, in August 1976 Marge Vasquez was appointed as Colorado Springs’ first Latina councilmember, serving District 4. The next year, in April 1977, she won re-election by defeating two male candidates. Vasquez was involved with numerous community organizations including the Latino Chamber of Commerce, the prestigious United States Service Academy Board, the United Way, the St. Mary’s Booster Club and many more.
MIRIAM LOO
Miriam Loo was a visionary entrepreneur and generous philanthropist who made history by revolutionizing the mail-order industry. Miriam started her business in the basement of her Colorado Springs home in 1950, when most women were homemakers or had very few career opportunities to choose from.
With a $1,500 loan from her father, Loo began contacting churches around the country asking if they wanted to fundraise by reselling packages of greeting cards. She had about a 50% positive response rate, and her company named Current was formed. With assistance from husband Orin and sons Lester “Dusty,” Gary, and Roger, Miriam ran the company from her home for about 10 years.
In 1961, Miriam turned the day-to-day business over to son Dusty, and then eventually merged Current with husband Orin Loo’s business, Looart Press, in 1967, which son Gary was heavily involved with. Together, Dusty and Gary ran Current for nearly two decades before selling the business in 1986.
Despite turning control over to her sons, Current was always Miriam Loo’s business. She operated a test kitchen facility there and published a series of popular cookbooks. She was renowned for her keen insight into what products would sell and which designs were best. She also worked hard to create a “family friendly” workforce at Current. Although Miriam and Orin Loo donated to many local charities, they are often best remembered for their large bequest of the Orin W. and Miriam B. Loo Cancer Pavilion at Penrose St. Francis Hospital.
JULIE PENROSE
Julie Villiers Lewis McMillan Penrose was an extremely generous woman who left a lasting legacy on the Pikes Peak region. Born in 1870, she was the daughter of prominent businessman and former Detroit Mayor Alexander Lewis and his wife of Elizabeth Ingersoll. She grew up in a family that valued public service and encouraged philanthropy. Throughout her life she gave generously to numerous artistic, cultural, educational, and religious institutions.
In 1937, Julie and husband Spencer Penrose created El Pomar Foundation to consolidate Spencer’s business holdings and to fund philanthropic grants throughout the state. After Spencer’s death in 1939, Julie served as the president of El Pomar Foundation for 16 years. It is hard to overstate how important Julie Penrose’s visionary gifts and ongoing legacy is on the Pikes Peak region, and the State of Colorado.
ARLENE PIEPER STINE
An important but little known fact is that the Pikes Peak Marathon was the first marathon in the United States of America to allow female racers. In 1958, 28-year-old Arlene Pieper was a wife, mother and local business owner. To promote her women’s health studio, Pieper’s husband suggested she run the Pikes Peak Marathon. She made it to the summit but ended her race there. Over the next year, Pieper trained diligently, running from five to 10 miles two to three times a week and training on Pikes Peak every weekend.
On race day in 1959, Pieper lined up with her 9-year-old daughter Kathie, 16 male competitors and another female racer, Katherine Heard. Pieper’s daughter Kathie and Katherine Heard made it to the summit, but Arlene also headed back down. Passing “huffing and puffing out-of-towners” she gleefully declared, “What a great day for a race!” Crossing the finish line in 9 hours and 16 minutes, Pieper had no idea she just made history.
As the 50th anniversary of Arlene Pieper’s groundbreaking marathon approached, Race Director and Triple Crown of Running President Ron Ilgen wanted to invite Arlene to the race. But first they had to find her. Ilgen hired a private detective to no avail and even promised a $500 reward. Great news finally arrived — a genealogist tracked down Arlene Pieper in California. Despite being proud of her accomplishments, Arlene was unprepared for the tremendous outpouring of admiration she received from runners and race fans. Arlene encouraged women to never hold back: “If women have something they have always wanted to do, they should get out and do it for themselves!”
RHEA WOLTMAN
Rhea Woltman (1927-2021) already was an accomplished pilot when she was tapped as one of the women to undergo testing and training to participate in the secret Mercury project for astronauts in the 1960s. She trained beside John Glenn and the other male Mercury astronauts, and she and 12 other women pilots became the First Lady Astronaut Trainees, now known as the Mercury 13. The women’s project was canceled by the Johnson administration (Rhea always said it was because they couldn’t fit into the men’s space suits) without the women flying a space mission, but they led the way for other American women to travel in space.
Rhea moved to Colorado Springs in the early 1970s. She did glider training and towing for Air Force Academy cadets. She became a registered parliamentarian and served many Colorado Springs and national organizations, becoming the first parliamentarian for the U.S. Olympic Committee. She was a prominent member of the Colorado Springs Rotary Club. The University of Wisconsin conferred on Woltman an honorary Doctorate in Aeronautics, as a Mercury 13 astronaut. Woltman was inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame in 2008.
STEPHANIE FINLEY FORTUNE
Stephannie Finley Fortune’s career started in a family-owned business, distributing food to the military. During that time, she discovered her passion for public service and politics as a young volunteer. She went on to have an exhilarating career in public policy, government, community development and business, working early in her career for the White House in Presidential Advance; serving as chief of staff for a Colorado congressman representing the Western Slope and Pueblo; ascending to assistant director at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment; working with the president of the University of Colorado system; and chief of staff for the lieutenant governor under Gov. Bill Owens. She was recruited to Colorado Springs to become the Chamber of Commerce’s president of Governmental Affairs and Public Policy along with executive director of the Center for Regional Advancement and a special advisor to the Chamber Political Action Committee. She eventually worked for the chancellor and vice chancellor of UCCS. Stephannie served two years representing District 3 in the Colorado Springs City Council.
Stephannie enjoyed being a part of different teams for major initiatives throughout her career. At the request of then-Gov. Owens, she helped establish and direct Colorado’s first Office of Suicide Prevention. She also helped launch new offices or initiatives including: the Center for Regional Advancement, UCCS Regional Connect, the Quad Innovation Partnership, UCCS Downtown, the Colorado Springs Promise through Pikes Peak United Way, and the Center for Regional Advancement’s Regional Leaders Trips.
Stephannie always had a passion for leadership and had the privilege of exercising her leadership skills through her involvement in a variety of community and regional initiatives. She served on the board of directors for numerous boards including Pikes Peak United Way, the Lyda Hill Institute for Human Resilience, and the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and received countless accolades and awards for her leadership and community service before she passed away in 2023. Stephannie is survived by her true love, husband Kent Fortune. They were married on June 4, 2016, a day that Stephannie dreamed of for many years.
KATHLEEN FOX COLLINS
Born in Mexico City, Kathleen spent most of her first 15 years abroad, in Fiji, Egypt and India, traveling through dozens of countries in between. She survived a ship fire in New Zealand, climbed the pyramids, house-boated in Kashmir, drove through the Soviet Union and cared for exotic pets such as mongooses, falcons and a leopard named Pushpa.
In 1957, she left India to attend boarding school and high school in the United States. She attended the University of Colorado in Boulder and was married in 1964 to Timothy Collins, whose family lived in Colorado Springs. The couple first lived in Denver, where their son, Joel, was born.
As an aspiring actress (she had an early start as an infant in a film starring Ricardo Montalban), she embraced her love of theater while living in New York City and working for Theatre for the Forgotten, helping prisoners at Rikers Island, Attica and other institutions to write and perform their own plays.
In 1975, Kathleen moved to Colorado Springs, first managing the Agora Building on North Tejon Street and soon finding her calling in music management, serving in various roles for 25 years with the Colorado Springs Symphony Orchestra. There, alongside general manager Bee Vradenburg and conductor and her then-partner Charles Ansbacher, the trio conceived projects such as Summer Symphony at Memorial Park, Pops on Ice and numerous other artistic collaborations.
Next in her music career was 15 years with Western Jubilee, promoting and booking cowboy artists for festivals and recordings and deepening our collective understanding of this Western genre.
Diminutive in size but with a forceful and single-minded drive, she served on numerous boards and committees including UCCS Theatreworks, KCME and Friends of the Uncle Wilber Fountain; founding director at both Bee Vradenburg Foundation and Opera Theater of the Rockies; founding partner at Meadowgrass Music Festival; and co-founder of Ride for the Brand Ranch Rodeo and Cattle Drive.
Promoting the arts in her chosen hometown was her passionate enterprise. “I love Colorado Springs,” she said in 2007. “I stayed here because one can actually make a difference here and feel valued. … I feel privileged to have worked with so very many talented, committed and hopeful people.”
BAMBI VENETUCCI
Bambini “Bambi” Macarantonio Venetucci was born in Frederick, Colorado on June 16, 1929, to Italian parents immigrated to American from a small village in Italy after World War I to escape poverty. Her father worked in the coal fields of northern Colorado and the family farmed beans and potatoes.
Born with a severe visual impairment, Bambi came to live in Colorado Springs and attend school at the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind (CSDB) when she was just seven years old. It was a difficult transition from a loving home to an institutional setting so far from her family.
Ambitious and smart, in 1950 Bambi became one of the first blind students at the University of Colorado, Boulder. After transferring to a college in San Francisco, Bambi earned her degree in Special Education and returned to the CSDB in 1954, this time as a teacher. She was an outstanding teacher who took her students on annual trips to downtown Colorado Spring to teach them how to ride the bus, navigate escalators and elevators, cross streets, and order meals in restaurants. Her niece Nancy Dallinger recalled that Bambi, “…wanted to know that nothing was impossible.” In 1983 Bambi Macarantonio was honored as the Colorado Teacher of the Year. In 1995, Bambi authored her autobiography, Dammi La Mano – Give Me Your Hand.
Bambi first met her husband-to-be Nick Venetucci in 1957. Both came from Italian-American families, and both attended St. Mary’s Cathedral. They courted for 27 years before marrying in December 1984. From that point forward, the beloved couple worked together to give away thousands of free pumpkins from the Venetucci farm in Security. As journalist Bill Vogrin noted, Bambi “scheduled the buses of schoolchildren as Nick shepherded around the fields.”
Nick Venetucci passed away in September 2004 and just weeks later a statue of him was unveiled on the grounds of the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. As Bambi touched the face and hands of the statue, she said, “It’s him. Those hands are his hands. So strong.”
Bambi Venetucci was a selfless person who poured her heart into her students, friends, family, and this community. As her great nephew Chris Dallinger stated, “Bambi Venetucci made a profound positive impact on everyone she ever met. There are few people you can describe as an absolute inspiration, but Aunt Bambi was exactly that.” Bambi Venetucci passed away on January 15, 2015 at the age of 85.
RUTH BANNING LEWIS
Ruth Banning was born in Colorado Springs on July 11, 1892. She attended Colorado Springs schools and graduated with an AB degree from Wellesley College as a Phi Beta Kappa member. She taught for a year at Colorado College before taking over the management of two family-owned ice manufacturing plants and the Banning Ranch which her father founded in 1897. She organized and managed the Consumers Ice Delivery Company for delivery of all ice manufactured in Colorado Springs. The Banning Ranch raised specially bred Percheron draft horses for use in the ice and coal delivery business.
After she married Raymond W. Lewis on September 18, 1921, the couple merged their business interests into the Banning Lewis Ranch in 1924. They slowly added properties to eventually consolidate the ranch to over 30,000 acres. They raised award-winning registered Hereford beef cattle for sale as foundation stock to cattle breeders across the country. Ruth Banning Lewis later became a member of the board of directors of the Hereford Breeders Association, the first woman elected to that position.
In addition to her work at the Banning Lewis Ranch, Ruth was a member of the faculty of Seton School of Nursing at Glockner, later Penrose Hospital. She volunteered in what was then known as “mental hygiene” work and serves as Chairwoman of the Professional Committee of the Volunteer Nurses Aid Committee of the Pikes Peak Chapter of the American Red Cross.
Ruth Banning Lewis was a member of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), League of Women Voters, Colorado Springs Garden Club, American Music Society, Tuesday Discussion Club, and was a member of Grace Episcopal Church. She served six years on City Council, served on the District 11 School Board for 11 years, helped organize the Girl Scouts in Colorado Springs, and participated in numerous other charitable and civic organizations.
Ruth Banning Lewis died November, 1962 at the age of 70 in her home at the Broadmoor Hotel after an extended illness.
JOYCE GILMER
Joyce Gilmer was an extraordinary person who left a legacy of kindness, grace, intelligence, professionalism, and extraordinary hospitality. Born and raised in Hayti, Missouri, Joyce was the daughter of a carpenter father and former schoolteacher mother. She was a standout student who dreamed of getting a college degree. Unfortunately, her family was unable to afford college tuition for any of their six children. After her high school graduation, Joyce sought work in Chicago before marrying a former schoolmate. Unfortunately, Joyce and her military husband divorced in 1971, shortly after moving to Colorado Springs. Joyce decided to put down roots and raise her three children here.
After attending real estate school, she became the first Black female real estate agent in Colorado Springs, opening her own company – Joyce Realty in 1976. Remarkably, as a single working mother, Joyce Gilmer graduated from UCCS with a Business Degree at the age of 47 in 1983. Her gold UCCS graduation gown – specially made for her – is on permanent exhibit in Any Place That is North and West at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum.
All the while, Gilmer ensured that her children’s educational goals and extracurricular activities were priorities, stating, “Being a single parent, I was always consciously doing something to make the children feel happy and secure.” Son Keith and daughter Karen went to the Colorado Springs School, and daughter Kim attended the Fountain Valley School —all on academic scholarships. Additionally, all three Gilmer children graduated from college, with son Keith earning a medical degree and practicing as a physician.
The tightknit family enjoyed cooking and enjoying meals together, food always serving as the “glue that holds things together.” The Gilmer home was a well-known “gathering place” for family and friends, including neighbors, scout troops, community leaders, exchange students, and anyone who needed connection, conversation, and a home-cooked meal served with incredible style. Joyce Gilmer’s cookbook, “A Few of My Favorite Things” is dedicated to single parents and their children.
Want to learn more about our local history?
We highly encourage you to visit the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum to see exhibits such as The Story of Us, Una Familia Grande, COS@150 and others. The museum is a valuable resource for the cultural history of the Pikes Peak Region and admission is free.
Up next on Cultural Corridor
November Native American History Month
February Black History Month
March Women’s History Month
May Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
June Pride Month
September 15-October 15 Hispanic Heritage Month
Now accepting nominations of historical figures that have helped shaped our diverse community.