Posted by Communications Liaison Ellie Simpson, thanks to Archivist Jon Coss.

Myrtle Bales was born in Iowa in 1899. As a youth she was affected when the local sheriff threatened to arrest women who wore pants instead of skirts to do farm work during World War I. After graduating from Iowa State Teachers College, she taught school and joined the League of Women Voters. She married Harold Bulkley in 1926. As a mother of two, she was active in the L.W.V. and took her children to its events. She died in Dallas in 1990 at age 90.

Virginia Bulkley was born in 1928 in New Rochelle and raised in Pelham. Her father Harold worked for Union Carbide and joined the Huguenot Church in 1935. She joined HMC in 1941, attended Mount Holyoke, got married in 1950, and had two daughters. After a divorce, Myrtle helped raise the children while Virginia worked at the Rockefeller Foundation. She met a former Pelham classmate, James Whitehill, married him, and moved with their family to Dallas.

Virginia Bulkley Whitehill, described by the NYT as the “white gloved feminist activist.”

Virginia Bulkley Whitehall was best known for her work to secure the legal right of women to control their reproduction. She was present at the U.S. Supreme Court during the Roe v. Wade court case that confirmed the legality of abortion. Her volunteerism and philanthropic work earned her many honors, including the League of Women Voters’ Myrtle Bulkley Award for Outstanding Service. In 2000 the Texas Women’s Chamber of Commerce named her Woman of the Century. Virginia Whitehill died in Dallas in 2028 at age 90, survived by her two daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren.

Sources:

Cottrell, Debbie Mauldin, Ph.D. “Myrtle Bales Bulkley: A Pioneer of Women’s Rights and Suffrage. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/bulkley-myrtle-bales

Dodd, Samantha. Word Press. 5 July 2022. At the Epicenter Once Again: Women’s Reproductive Rights Movement in Dallas

Dodd, Samantha. Texas State Historical Association. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/whitehill-virginia-bulkley-ginny

Find-a-Grave. Myrtle Bulkley. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27991331/myrtle-bulkley

New York Times. Harold Bulkley obit. 12 Nov 1971. https://www.nytimes.com/1971/11/12/archives/harold-f-bulkley-union-carbide-aide.html

New York Times. “Virginia Bulkley Whitehill. White Gloved Feminist Activist.” https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/nytimes/name/virginia-whitehill-obituary?id=16093031

Whitehill, Virginia Bulkley. The Dallas Morning News. Obituary, 23 Sept 2018. https://obits.dallasnews.com/us/obituaries/dallasmorningnews/name/virginia-whitehill-obituary?id=1976519

Wikipedia. Virginia Whitehill. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Whitehill