Women We Lost in 2010

By Noelle Jackson

Every year, PINK acknowledges women who made their mark on this world, especially those who worked hard to improve it. Here, we remember five more female pioneers and heroes who died in 2010, after paving the way for the rest of us.

Dede Allen (born 1923): Allen was a revolutionary, awarded film editor who changed the standard of American film. She was the first to incorporate European styles of film editing and construction into major Hollywood movies.

Lucille Clifton (born 1936): An acclaimed American poet, writer and educator. Clifton often shed light on the challenges and experiences of African-Americans and women. Her poetry was known for being personal, truthful, and humorous, often having an autobiographical element.

Shirley Verrett (born 1931): An internationally acclaimed American opera singer from the 1950s to the ‘80s, Verrett faced discrimination as a black woman in the opera world. She went on to sing around the globe, starring in roles such as Lady Macbeth.

Miep Gies (born 1909): This unthinkably brave Dutch woman hid and protected Anne Frank for more than two years in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. Gies recovered Frank’s diary after the Nazis arrested the Frank family and others Gies and her husband had been hiding. Gies returned the diary to Frank’s father, Otto Frank, when he was released from Auschwitz.

Jeanne Holm (born 1921): Holm was the first female Air Force general. She fought during the 1960s and ‘70s for women to be able to fully participate in service academies, ROTC, and all branches of the military.