Late Bloomers

As author of a groundbreaking book about single women and editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, Helen Gurley Brown has been called a voice for women’s liberation and a role model for working-class women. She’s also been a target of feminist scorn.

Corazon “Cory” Aquino was a pious, soft-spoken housewife who became the leader of a popular movement that overthrew Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos and restored democracy to the islands.

Georgia O'Keeffe is one of the most well known American painters of the 20th century. Famous for larger-than-life paintings of flowers and desert imagery, her sharp images, bold colors, and close-up views of objects are reminiscent of modern photographs.

In her 20s, anxious and fearful about her career, Helen Mirren visited a palm reader. Though she wrote pages of notes during the visit, she felt so uplifited by the experience that she threw them out. In an interview, she recalled the palm reader’s one indelible prophecy: “When you’re in your 50s, you will get to be very, very famous.”

Helen Frankenthaler was an American painter, sculptor and printmaker associated with the second-generation abstract expressionists, and a pioneer of the color field movement. She is renowned for using an innovative “soak stain” technique to create her landscape-inspired abstract works.

Austrian-born nuclear physicist Lise Meitner is credited with laying much of the theoretical groundwork for the atomic bomb, and was the first to calculate the explosive potential of nuclear fission. Despite her research, Meitner was never involved in the production “death-dealing weapons,” and refuted any claim to the contrary.

At 46, the world watched Katharine Graham transition from a nervous widow to chairman and chief executive officer of The Post Co. She saw this evolution much differently, however: “What I essentially did was to put one foot in front of the other, shut my eyes and step off the ledge.”

Mary Higgins Clark, a widowed mother of five children, spent two decades writing short stories and novels before receiving her big break at the age of 47. She has authored or co-authored more than 40 bestsellers, most of which are suspense novels featuring female protagonists.

Helen Thomas, a groundbreaking reporter and author, has witnessed firsthand changes in the media and in the political landscape of America. Her tough questioning of presidents and other political figures sets the standard for today’s journalists, and her gritty refusal to back down may never be replicated. 

Julia Child changed the way Americans approached food, introducing French cooking to the masses at a time when liberalism and a worldlier view were gaining a foothold. Her unabashed style, on display in her PBS cooking show, was endearing, and a recent film and revelations of her career as a spy have sparked a new generation of fans and followers.

Dr. Margaret Mead became one of the world’s most renowned American anthropologists through her extensive cross-cultural work on issues including gender roles, environmental justice, education, race relations, child rearing and nutrition. Known as the “observer’s observer,” she successfully bridged the gap between social anthropology and ethnology as we know them today.

Madeleine Albright, the first female U.S. secretary of state, served as the face of U.S. foreign policy during Bill Clinton's second term as president. This hardworking politician also has several academic honors on her resume as well.