I ‘ve always been a great admirer of Vanessa Redgrave…She and Liam’s acknowledgement of the public/fans shows grace and class. I am glad that theirs is a close family, particularly for the sake of the boys. My heart goes out to them and my prayers will be lifted out for them.

In honor of women’s history month, and in memory of the late, great Ms. Baumgartner, here is a wikepedia article on the woman who helped pioneer women’s NCAA athletics:

Roberta Alison Baumgardner (December 13, 1943 Alexander City, Alabama - March 20, 2009), was a figure in women’s tennis.[1]

She paved the way for women’s varsity athletics when she joined the men’s tennis team at the University of Alabama in 1963 at the age of 19. Jason Morton, tennis coach at Alabama at the time, found Alison training on grass courts in Tuscaloosa in preparation for the U.S. National Championship (now known as the U.S. Open). He convinced her to attend Alabama and play on the men’s tennis team. This was the first official move toward allowing women to participate in varsity athletics in the Southeastern Conference of the NCAA.

She played on the men’s team for three years. She was in the No. 4 position her first year but played in either the No. 1 or No. 2 position in her second and third years. Some of the competing schools men’s varsity teams would default to her rather than risk playing against a woman and losing.

Alison won the women’s collegiate singles title in 1962 and 1963, and paired with Justina Bricka of Missouri for the 1963 NCAA doubles title. Alison also was a four-time Blue Gray champion, and a three-time Southern tournament champion.

She is a member of the Southern Lawn Tennis Hall of Fame, the Southern Tennis Hall of Fame, the Women’s Intercollegiate Tennis Hall of Fame, and was in the first class enshrined into the University of Alabama’s Tennis Hall of Fame. The Roberta Alison Tennis Classic is held each year at the University of Alabama.

Alison also played the American tennis circuit. At the event in Cincinnati, she was a singles finalist in 1962 and 1965, and won doubles titles in 1962 (with Mary Habicht of Brazil), 1963 (with Linda Lou Crosby) and 1965 (with Stephanie DeFina).

Alison spent her life in Alexander City, AL. She was an animal lover and started the first humane society in the area - Lake Martin Humane Society.

On March 20, 2009 Baumgardner died.

Did you know that the original idea and patent that led to cellular phone technology comes from the movie star, Hedy Lamarr? She knew a great deal about weaponry by listening to her first husband, Fritz Mandl, an armament manufacturer. She left her husband when he became increasingly involved in deals with the Nazis and made her way to London, then on to Hollywood. She’d kept her mind active on what she’d heard about the problems of radio controlled missiles and how easy it was to block the simple signal. She realized that if the signal jumped from frequency to frequency quickly (like changing channels on a TV or radio) and both sender and receiver changed in the same order, then the signal could never be blocked by someone "listening in" who didn’t know how the frequency was changing. In those days before the transistor was invented it was difficult to design a way for this to be accomplished. Composer George Antheil suggested using something similar to piano rolls, from player pianos, to keep both sides in synch. Together, he and Lamarr patented the "Secret Communication System" in 1942. At that time the idea of using the paper rolls was too cumbersome to be practical. When the transistor did become available the Navy used the idea in secure military communications and when transistors became really cheap the idea was used in cellular phone technology. By the time the Navy used the idea, the original patent had expired and Lamarr and Antheil never received any royalty payments for their idea. In 1997 she was honored with an award at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference for "blazing new trails on the electronic frontier." Hedy Lamarr died on January 19, 2000. Source: The Associated Press, March, 1997

I have to give Hedy her ‘props’!

Congratulations on your first year wOw! I have been visiting this site since last summer and—while I still enjoy the site overall—I am also distressed at many of the same issues that Rainbow mentioned. I enjoy respectful debate, but some ‘low blows’ are being dealt by some regular posters. I, admittedly, have allowed myself to be baited in a few instances, but I try to keep my responses at an adult level (with a notable exception being a certain trollish type who seems to get away with anything and everything…). ANYWAY…here’s hoping for a bigger and better year to come!!!

P.S. Roger, you’re okay in my book too—glad you are here!

http://www.tolerance.org/teach/web/ptolerance/plan.jsp?cid=671&pa=2

For further reading, look up the book Journey to Justice: Juliette Hampton Morgan and the Montgomery Bus Boycott