#52 Ancestors 2022 Week 9 Females: Elizabeth Dent--Sorry She's a Girl

 A regular part of my genealogy research is to search online newspapers for mentions of any of my family members.  On one search, I came across a very surprising story about my grandmother,Ida Elizabeth Dent. Elizabeth "Lib" Dent was the daughter of John Marshall Dent and Mary Peterson Turner, born 21 October 1902 in Oakley, St. Mary's County MD. She was named after her grandmother, Ida Elizabeth Wright, although she didn’t like the name Ida and never used it.

In the fall of 1911, The Evening Sun ran a contest for young writers, giving a new topic every week and a prize of $5 for first place and $1 for the next five places. Here is the announcement for October 16:

My grandmother apparently felt strongly that she had something to say on this topic and sent in her story.  She won a $1 prize for this story:

Not this: 

But this:

I have to say I never detected that hint of liberation thinking in my grandmother.  But obviously this little girl had issues! 

Lib had a brother, Jack, 2 years older than she. I wonder what Jack got to do that made Lib so mad? Clearly, he did not have to set the table. She also had an uncle, Elliott Dent, who was a professional baseball player.  Perhaps she had secret dreams of an athletic career.  Her great-grandfather, John Francis Dent, was a well-known politician.  Perhaps she wanted to follow in his footsteps. 

Elizabeth Dent Scrivener

Now Elizabeth grew into a very beautiful young woman, who won a DAR scholarship to St. Mary's Female Seminary, taught school for two years, married, and raised five sons and a daughter.  As far as I could tell, she was totally devoted to her husband Frank and stayed at home to take care of her children. She never even learned to drive a car. I never knew my grandmother as an outspoken feminist, but I hope that she lived some of her dreams and in the end was not sorry to be a girl.  And did she make her sons set the table? 

Even if she did not achieve those early aspirations, though, I strongly suspect that she passed on that feminist gene to her daughter, Louise, whom everyone referred to as Reds because of her flaming hair. I know for a fact that Aunt Reds never stood for any @#! from anyone, especially her brothers. Even when Aunt Reds was in her 90's, the other residents of her assisted living facility elected her as their spokesperson because she could always get results for their requests. 

I think a few of Lib's granddaughters may have inherited that gene also. Just sayin'