This program is stories about women who left footprints on history by stepping out of place. Consider Ann Eliza Young, Brigham Young’s 19th wife, who was instrumental in getting polygamy outlawed, “Baby Doe” Tabor, sometimes called The Silver Queen, or Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, the only female to be awarded our nation’s Medal of Honor. Nebraska’s Tad Lucas, lady bronc rider, was the only person inducted into all three Cowboy Halls of Fame. Nebraska also claims Susan LaFlesche Picotte, the first Native American woman to become a physician. If you’ve never heard of Helga Estby, who walked across America in 1996, it’s probably because her achievements were hidden by her family. Her story segues into a discussion of Tillie Olsen’s views about ways that creative women are often silenced.

Speaker Lyn Messersmith is a third generation rancher in Cherry County Nebraska, newspaper columnist and free-lance writer who has earned her spurs and hung them up, but hasn’t sold her saddle or cows. Lyn hangs her hat at the home ranch as well as her husband’s home place in Sheridan County, and lives part time in her pickup, traveling with Deb Nolting to present writing workshops and historical programs for the Nebraska and South Dakota Humanities Councils. She doesn’t much care what else you say about her as long as it is something her mother would have liked to hear.