Bessie Stringfield – motorbiking across the USA

A common theme of my Herstory blog posts is women doing things that ‘nice girls’ were not meant to do, and today’s post is no exception. Bessie Stringfield, the first black woman to ride solo across America on a motorcycle, crossed the Southern states at a time when independent women and blacks were not welcome, breaking barriers, being fearless and paving the way for all female riders.

Stories of Bessie’s early life are confused as there are so many versions; she was a master storyteller and didn’t let truth get in the way of a good tale. It seems likely that she was born in 1911 in North Carolina to a black Jamaican father and a white Dutch mother. A stubborn tomboy, Bessie made up her mind that she wanted a motorbike at the age of 16 and her adoptive mother bought her a 1928 Indian Scout, even though Bessie had no idea how to ride it. Soon she switched to the first of 27 Harley Davidsons she owned during her lifetime.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Bessie took eight long-distance, solo rides across the United States, including the Deep South. She planned her routes by tossing a coin and going to wherever it landed. When later asked if she would repeat the toss if the penny landed in land where the Ku Klux Klan were known to be active, she replied, “A penny makes a wide circle on a map. I could ride anywhere I wanted inside the circle or around the edges if I had to.” Life on the road wasn’t easy. Many roads weren’t paved and she broke down often. Sometimes she was chased off the road and was deliberately knocked down by a white male in a pickup truck while traveling in the South. Accommodation was a problem; many motels wouldn’t allow black women. She often slept on her bike, using her rolled-up jacket as a pillow across the handlebars, while resting her feet on the rear. But she also encountered kindness. Black families were curious and friendly, often offering her a room for the night. Some white gas station owners were so impressed with Bessie that they filled her tanks for free. She was the first black woman known to have travelled by motorcycle to all 48 states in the continental US. During this time, she made money by performing stunts on the Wall of Death at carnivals. She also entered races as a man. After she won, she revealed she was a woman and was disqualified.

During World War II, she became a dispatch rider, carrying documents between domestic army bases, the only woman in a small unit in the segregated army. She completed the rigorous training and rode her own Harley-Davidson. After the war, she became a licenced practical nurse and founded the Iron Horse Motorcycle Club in Miami, where she was known by locals as  the Motorcycle Queen of Miami. The local police refused her a licence at first, until she demanded a meeting with the chief of police and showed off her skills.

Bessie was a private person but is known to have married and divorced six times, all to men more than 20 years her junior. When interviewed at age 75 she said, “I wouldn’t have a man over 35, even now.“ After losing three babies with her first husband, Bessie’s heartbreak prevented from trying again to have children. In later life, Bessie suffered from an enlarged heart but defied doctors’ orders to give up riding until shortly before her death in 1993 at the age of 82. When reflecting on her life, she said: “I spent most of my life alone, lookin’ for a family. I found my family in motorcycling.”

Nancy Wake – the war heroine who ran rings around the Gestapo

Today’s post is the tale of a feisty, fun and fearless woman.   Known as the White Mouse for her ability to run rings round the Gestapo, Nancy Wake was Australia’s greatest war heroine and one of the most decorated agents of the Second World War.

Nancy was born in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1912, but her family moved to Sydney Australia in when she was just 20 months old. Soon afterwards, her father returned to New Zealand, and her mother raised her alone. Hers was an impoverished childhood and she ran away from home at the age of 16, believing she had two career choices: becoming a prostitute or a journalist. In 1932, a small inheritance from an aunt enabled her to leave Australia. She decided that journalism offered her the best opportunities for travel, and visited London, New York and Paris, deciding that the latter suited her best. She worked as a freelance journalist and made the most of the Paris nightlife. In 1936, she met Henry Fiocca, a wealthy businessman with whom she enjoyed a decadent lifestyle before the outbreak of World War II. However, during their travels around Europe, she witnessed Nazis randomly beating up Jewish people on the streets, and this was to transform her from a fun-loving young woman to the determined fighter she became.

From the beginning, Nancy was determined to play an active role in the war. She said: “I hate wars and violence but if they come then I don’t see why we women should just wave our men a proud goodbye and then knit them balaclavas.” Using their wealth and social standing as a cover, she and Henri helped hundreds of Allied servicemen and Jewish refugees escape from France into neutral Spain. When the authorities threatened to catch up with her, Nancy fled to Spain and from there to England, where she became a member of the Special Operations Executive. Henri, who stayed behind, was captured and later executed for refusing to inform on her. Nancy was a quick learner whose skills with a gun put all the men to shame. Her work involved organising parachute drops of arms, establishing communication networks between the British military and French resistance, and occasional combat. She killed a German sentry with a single karate chop to the neck, and ordered the execution of a woman she believed to be a German spy. By her own admission: “I was not a very nice person and it didn’t put me off my breakfast.” But her proudest moment was cycling through several Nazi checkpoints over 500 km in less than 72 hours to reopen communications after Resistance radio codes were destroyed.

Although a glamorous figure, Nancy wanted to be taken seriously among the men and had no time for flattery: when her parachute became entangled in a tree, the man who found her commented: “I hope that all the trees in France bear such beautiful fruit this year.” She replied: “Don’t give me that French shit.” She did, however, admit that she flirted shamelessly while talking her way out of precarious situations, and evaded capture many times. A fellow officer commented: “She is the most feminine woman I know, until the fighting starts. Then, she is like five men.” At the end of the war, Nancy received so many military awards from the UK, France and the US that, in later life, she lived on the proceeds of their sale.

After the war, Nancy struggled to adjust to an ordinary existence; her desk job at the British Embassy bored her and she returned to Australia in 1949. After two unsuccessful attempts to become elected to parliament, she married a retired RAF officer, John Forward. They lived a happy and gregarious existence until his death in 1997, when she decided to spend the rest of her life in England, living in a hotel and racking up considerable debts thanks to the six gin-and-tonics she downed most days. It’s rumoured that, among others, Prince Charles helped pay her bills. She died in 2011, shortly before her 99^th birthday.