Trailblazing director Diane Martel, who was behind some of the most iconic music videos of the pop era, including the controversial ‘Blurred Lines’ clip, has died of breast cancer at 63. Born and raised in New York, where she got her start filming the city’s gritty hip hop scene in the early 1990s, Martel broke … Read more
Jeannie Seely, the soulful country music singer behind such standards like “Don’t Touch Me,” has died. She was 85. Her publicist, Don Murry Grubbs, said she died Friday after succumbing to complications from an intestinal infection. Known as “Miss Country Soul” for her unique vocal style, Seely was a trailblazer for women in country music, celebrated for … Read more
In ‘The Girls Who Fought Crime: The Untold True Story of the Country’s First Female Investigator and Her Crime Fighting Squad’ (Sourcebooks), retired US Army Major General Mari K. Eder tells the story of Mary Foley, a pioneering police officer in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s. Born in 1886, Mary, or “Mae,” Foley was … Read more
In 1982, 17-year-old Clare Frank was legally emancipated from her parents, moved into an illegally converted garage apartment in Santa Cruz, and became a firefighter in Northern California. Frank graduated at the top of her training class. Still, the scrawny, 5-foot-2 teen was too young to join the service; she left her date of birth … Read more