Dallas civic leader and women’s rights advocate Virginia Whitehill often worked with Dallas women’s page editor Vivian Castleberry to create a better place for women.

Beginning in the 1960s, the two women helped co-found the Dallas Women’s Coalition, Women’s Issues Network, Dallas Women’s Foundation, The Family Place shelter, and the Women’s Southwest Federal Credit Union.

From a Dallas Morning News profile: “Each was intended to help with the issues confronting women, but that didn’t make Ms. Whitehill and
other leaders popular in some circles.
“When we went down to Austin to lobby state leaders, some called us ‘FLACs’ – ‘Fat Lesbian Atheist Communists,’ ” she said. “There was that kind of bad-mouthing. You hated men if you supported women’s rights.”

But Ms. Whitehill was resilient, and came naturally to the role of activist. Her mother, Myrtle Bales Bulkley, marched for women’s suffrage as a young woman and remained a vocal supporter of women’s rights until her death in 1990.

“She was a teen in World War I and I was a teen in World War II, and those were wonderful times for women,” Ms. Whitehill said.

“They showed there was no job they couldn’t do as well as men, and in some cases better.”

I met Virginia in September at a brunch in Vivian’s honor in Dallas.

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Dallas civic leader and women’s rights advocate Virginia Whitehill often worked with Dallas women’s page editor Vivian Castleberry to create a better place for women.

Beginning in the 1960s, the two women helped co-found the Dallas Women’s Coalition, Women’s Issues Network, Dallas Women’s Foundation, The Family Place shelter, and the Women’s Southwest Federal Credit Union.

From a Dallas Morning News profile: “Each was intended to help with the issues confronting women, but that didn’t make Ms. Whitehill and
other leaders popular in some circles.
“When we went down to Austin to lobby state leaders, some called us ‘FLACs’ – ‘Fat Lesbian Atheist Communists,’ ” she said. “There was that kind of bad-mouthing. You hated men if you supported women’s rights.”

But Ms. Whitehill was resilient, and came naturally to the role of activist. Her mother, Myrtle Bales Bulkley, marched for women’s suffrage as a young woman and remained a vocal supporter of women’s rights until her death in 1990.

“She was a teen in World War I and I was a teen in World War II, and those were wonderful times for women,” Ms. Whitehill said.

“They showed there was no job they couldn’t do as well as men, and in some cases better.”

I met Virginia in September at a brunch in Vivian’s honor in Dallas.

Please follow and like us: