Kate Waller Barrett

Kate Waller Barrett was a woman working hard to change the lives of children in the late 1800's and early 1900's. She has recently been added to the "Virginia Women in History of 2006." There are now two elementary schools named after her in Virginia, the Kate Waller Barrett Elementary School of Stafford County and the Kate Waller Barrett Elementary School of Arlington County.

She was born Katherine Harwood Waller at Clifton plantation in 1857. She grew up amid the hardships of the Civil War, and at age 18 married the Rev. Robert South Barrett.Any list of Kate Barrett's accomplishments should begin with her long association with the National Florence Crittenton Mission, an organization that eventually established 78 homes for unwed mothers and their children throughout the United States and abroad.

Among her many other accomplishments, Barrett was a charter member and vice president of the League of Women Voters and a motivating force behind the creation of the American Legion Auxiliary.

She also managed to earn a medical degree and raise six children--several of whom distinguished themselves on a national scale.

When Barrett died on Feb. 23, 1925, the flag over the Virginia Capitol in Richmond was flown at half-staff. She was the first woman in the history of the commonwealth to be so honored.

The Virginia Women in History program was created in 2000 by the Virginia Foundation for Women and was coordinated this year for the first time by the Library of Virginia.