Spunky Woman

The LILITH Mother’s Day “spunky women” column has been dedicated by Vivian Leith of Minneapolis in memory of her mother, Lillian Arkin Schwartz of Winnipeg, Manitoba. “My mother had indomitable spirit!’ says Leith, “spunky does not begin to describe the depth of her intellect and courage. She was a woman of great determination and strength of character!”

Lillian Schwartz (1908-1986) was an innovator, a woman willing to follow her own path doing what few women of her generation did. At the age of 19, she hitchhiked across Canada with a girlfriend. Later she became the first woman to graduate from the University of Manitoba Law School. Limited by severe asthma, she nevertheless wrote children’s books, was a sculptor, practiced law and successfully played the stock market.

The youngest child and only girl in a family of boys, Lillian was left to her own devices. “Since there were no rules fo*- her” says Leith, “she made her own!’ She built a modern house when no one else did, entered a male profession when no one else did and played the stock market “her own way!”

Leith is honoring her legacy.

Other spunky women honored with LILITH’s Mother’s Day cards by daughters, mothers, and others:

Seena E. Abrams
Anne Schneider Amis
Lorraine R Hersch Armour
Ruth Barber
Rachel Binah
Sadie Skigen Blatt
Barbara Bomze
Joan Brennan
Shirley Chapnick
Sue Carol Chechanover
Marjorie Thurman Cohen
Ruth Stern Danis
Esther Shuckowitz Davis
Betty Dehn
Sarah Dinerstein
Terri Eichen
Belle Epstein
Lenore Fahrer
Dr. Irene Fine
Phyllis Frank
Charlotte Freeman
Fay Gallant
Florence Gantz
Sylvia Genauer
Julie Gertler
Dr. Mimi Reisel Gladstein
Malchie Glazier
Ruth Glickman
Hilda S. Goldberg
Terry Goldstein
Dora B. Gottlieb
Gussie Green
Karen Dosick Grinfeld
Susan Hobart
Diane Jacobstein
Barbara Jessel
Brooke Joseph
Shirley T Joseph
Judy Zuckerman Kaufman
Abby Kellner-Rode
Eleanor Kent
Alexis Krasilovsky
Arline Kuznetz
Laura E. Lerman
Livia Levine
Sylvia Lewis
Etta Machlin
Nora Mandel
Harriet Voloshin Marks
Claire Metzger
Betty Cottin Miller
Anita Morris
Tyda Niloff
Ruth Uretsky Oberfield
Pauline Pantsios
Regina Pearlman
Natalie Pelavin
Shea Pertman
Abigail Pogrebin
Esther Pogrebin
Robin Pogrebin
Miriam RoherResnick
Ann Rezak
Dr. Nina Ribak Rosenthal
Ruth Ruben
Mildred Salpeter
Sophie Salpeter
Janice Schakowsky
Sarel Scheerer
Fridl Schlesinger
Toby Schneider
Rita Mischel Schwartz
Lilian M. Semel
Bonnie Sherk
Gloria Shulman
Ruth Schulman
Freda Stanton
Norma K. Stone
Ronni Strongin
Sharon B. Subeck
Constance Sussman
Pearl Toppman
Zora Weidman
Diana Weiss
Sylvia Wolf
Marcia J. Workman
Pesi Zelikovic