The Daily Times-News from Burlington, North Carolina • Page 26

The Daily Times News SECTION 14 PAGES WOMEN'S NEWS FEATURES SUNDAY. DECEMBER 26. 1976 Many Sex Barriers Broken Women's Impact Felt in Bicentennial Year Universe. Miss Jamaica, 22 year old Cindy Breakspeare, was chosen Miss World 1976. Dorothy Kathleen Benham.

20, of Edina, was crowned Miss America 1977 at the annual pageant in Atlantic City. The 5 foot 7V2, 120 pound blonde is a junior at Macalester College in St. Paul, majoring in vocal performance. Twanna D. Kilgore, 21, of Washington, D.C., was chosen Miss Black America.

An English major at Federal City College, she hopes to pursue a career in the arts. Actress Angie Dickinson was named Woman of the Year by the Hollywood Radio and Television Society, for the success of her TV series, lost her power in China after the death of her husband, Mao Tse tung. Former first ladies were in the news during the year: Mamie Eisenhower, who spent 11 weeks in Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center with a viral infection, celebrated her 80th birthday; Lady Bird Johnson visited Israel; and Pat Nixon was hospitalized after suffering a stroke. Women seeking a toehold on the career ladder in fields previously dominated by men could take heart from the successes of their sisters during the year. Barbara Walters, 44, who had been co host of the NBC "Today" show for the last two years and a writer and personality with the network for 12 years, accepted an offer of $1 million a year over the next five years to co anchor "The Evening News" at ABC with Harry Reasoner.

Jane Pauley, 25 year old Indiana native, joined the "Today" show staff as a co host with Tom Brokaw. Meanwhile, Lynn Sherr, 34, CHRIS EVERT won her second Wimbledon women's singles title, along with numerous other victories during a year in which she received the first Woman Athlete of the World award. NEW YORK (AP) While a bicentennial conscious nation was taking a year long nostalgic look at its past, American women were writing new history in 1976. They broke the sex barrier at the U.S. military academies, enrolling at West Point, Annapolis and the Air Force Academy, after a law signed by President Ford abolished the all male tradition at those institutions.

Women also entered the Coast Guard Academy, to become the first female cadets there since its founding in 1876. The academy, operated by the Department of Transportation, was not affected by the legislation, but integrated its student body voluntarily. In a presidential election year, women's political impact was evident and by the time Rosalynn Carter became First Lady elect her face and her stand on various issues were already familiar all over the United States. Wives of the major candidates Mrs. Carter, Joart Mondale, Betty Ford and Elizabeth Dole struck out on their own across the country on tough campaign tours.

In hard hitting speeches they gave their own views, as well as explained their husbands' positions, which they sometimes didn't agree with. A woman even campaigned for president, on an antiabor tion platform: Ellen McCor mack, 49 year old Merrick, L.I., housewife, mother and grandmother, came in fifth in the balloting at the Democratic National Convention. That gathering saw Rep. Lindy Boggs, presiding as permanent "chairperson," the first woman to hold that position in the party's history, while Rsp. Barbara Jordan, was keynote speaker.

Mary Louise Smith, 62, first woman to be Republican National Chairman, was continued in that post after the Republican convention but in November announced her resignation. 5 Barbara Walters Dixy Lee Ray Rosalynn Carter first woman to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain. Rosemary L. Ginn, 63, Republican national com mitteewoman from Missouri, succeeded Ruth L.

Farkas as U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg, and President Ford nominated Patricia M. Byrne, 51. as ambassador to Mali. Shirley Temple Black, former child movie star who was previously ambassador to Ghana, became the first woman to hold the post of U.S.

Chief of Protocol. Jeanne M. Holm, 54, retired from the Air Force, where she had been the nation's first woman major general, was appointed by President Ford as his special assistant for women's affairs. In that post she succeeded Patricia Sullivan Lindh, former Republican national committeewoman from Louisiana, who was named deputy assistant secretary of state for education and public affairs. Evelyn Gandy, a 55 year old attorney, became Mississippi's first woman lieutenant governor, elected to the post after serving two times as state treasurer.

Former Rep. Louise Day Hicks, an outspoken opponent of forced school desegregation busing, was elected president of the Boston City Council, the first woman in the city's history to hold the top council post. Sally Stanford, as top vote getter in the city council election, was named mayor of Sausalito, a small community across the Golden Gate from her old home town of San Francisco, where she was once that city's best known bordello operator. Her first official act was to adjourn the city council meeting and break open a case of champagne to celebrate. President Ford nominated Juanita Ashcraft, 55, as an assistant secretary of the Air Force, the highest civilian Pentagon post for a woman in more than two decades.

He also nominated Shana Gordon, 36, as assistant secretary for public affairs of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. In political news abroad Isabel Peron, 45, was ousted from office by a bloodless military coup after 21 months as president of Argentina following the death of her husband, Juan Peron. And Chiang Ching, 63, jVJ M. Anne Armstrong Sylvia D. Garland was elected by the Alumni Association as its first woman president.

The Harvard Law Review elected its first woman presi dent: 23 year old Susan Estrich of Cambridge, a second year student at the Harvard Law School. Dr. Rosalyn Yalow became the first woman to receive an Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in the 31 year history of the prizes. Dr. Sarah Kerr Myers, who has served as editor of the American Geographical Society's quarterly Geographical Review since 1973.

became the first woman director of the society in its 124 year history. Sarah Caldwell, who has her own opera company in Boston, where she stages and conducts, became the first woman ever to conduct at the New York Metropolitan Opera since it opened in 1883. Sylvia E. Mathis, 26, a 1S75 graduate of the University of North Carolina's Law School, became the first black woman to be recruited as an agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Roberta Kankus, 23 year old graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, became the first woman in the United States, and perhaps in the world, to be licensed as a commercial nuclear power plant operator.

Gwendolyn Brooks, the poet who in 1950 was the first black woman to win a Pulitzer Prize, became the first black woman to be elected to the 250 member National Institute of Arts and Letters. Shirley Schlanger Abra hamson was named as the first woman Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. In other lands, women were racking up firsts also. Just a month after Britain's new laws against sex discrimination went into effect, Libby Howie, 24, became the first woman auctioneer in the 232 year history of Sotheby's, London fine arts dealers. Jo Marshall, 48, had broken the British barrier just a week previously by conducting an auction for the 149 year old firm of Phillips Sons and Neale.

The 56 year old League of Women Voters, which has accepted men as members for the last two years, considered dropping "Women" from its name at its biennial convention, then voted overwhelmingly to keep the old name. Meanwhile, the Boy. Scouts' executive board decided to give women greater leadership roles in the organization within limits. Formerly allowed to serve only as "den mothers" of Cub Scouts, they may now serve as eubmaster and assistant eubmaster but are still barred from scoutmaster or assistant scoutmaster. A resolution passed by the House of Bishops and House of Deputies of the 2.9 million member Episcopal Church approved the ordination of women as priests and bishops.

Women were competing against men in nearly every field, but they were still competing against their own sex in the traditional beauty contests. Barbara Elaine Peterson, 22, was chosen Miss U.S.A. and her sister, Polly, 17, won the Miss Teen Age Minnesota title. Rina Messinger, 20, former Israeli soldier and more recently a gliding instructor, was named Miss "Police Woman," the fourth woman ever to be given the society's top honor. Tatum O'Neal, 12, was named "Female Star of the Year" by the National Association of Theater Owners.

Dolly Parton, 30, was named top female vocalist for the second straight year by the Country Music Association. Anthropologist and author Margaret Mead, 74, was inducted into the Women's Hali of Fame, located at Seneca Falls, N.Y. For the second consecutive year, Trina Jarish, 34, of Costa Mesa, won the Powder Puff Derby crosscountry air race. The race was sponsored by the Ninety Nines, an organization of women pilots, who announced it was their last race. It wasn't all good news for women during 1976.

In the area of crime, they made their share of headlines. Sara Jane Moore, 45, was sentenced to life in prison, the maximum sentence prescribed by law, for attempting to kill President Ford on Sept. 22, 1975. Patricia Hearst, 22, was back with her family for the first time in almost three years, out on bail while appealing her bank robbery conviction for which she was Narrowing Gap The stomach ulcer once the almost exclusive preserve of men is fast becoming one more symbol of women's emerging equality, medical researchers reported at a conference in Miami. Thirty years ago, male ulcer patients outnumbered female patients 20 to 1, said Dr.

Morton I. Grossman, director of the UCLA Center for Ulcer Research and Education. The ratio has dropped to sentenced to seven years in prison. Actress Louise Lasser, 33, star of the TV soap opera, "Mary Hartman. Mary Hart man," completed a six month diversionary program on a charge of possession of cocaine.

The program is designed for first time drug offenders. Caril Ann Fugate, 32, was paroled after spending more than half her life in confinement. She was 14 when she accompanied Charles Starkweather on an 11 murder rampage. The National Center for Health Statistics reported that American divorces topped the one million mark in 1975 for the first time and that the nation's divorce rate was rising by nearly 5 per cent annually. The marriage rate was dropping by about 4 per cent, although an estimated 2.1 million couples were married in 1975.

The marriage rate may have been dropping in real life, but in the comic strip world, perennially young, red haired reporter Brenda Starr finally married her "mystery man," Basil St. John, whom she had been chasing for three decades. Among real life mergers: Doris Day, 52, filmdom's "girl next and Barry D. Comden, 41, a Beverly Hills restaurateur; her fourth marriage, his second. Nora Ephron, 34, columnist and free lance writer, and Carl Bernstein, 32, of the Washington Post's Watergate reporting team; second marriage for each.

Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, 56, More Than Equal Explaining that she has had training in judo and is a weightlifter, six foot, 275 pound Kathy Crumbley declared after her election as sheriff of Belmont County in Ohio: "I can deck any man the present sheriff can and maybe a few more." became the first woman to anchor a primetime network television news series when she was named host of public television's "U.S.A: People and Politics." Marlene Sanders, 45, was named vice president and director of documentaries for ABC News, the first woman vice president in the news division at that network. And network television news got its first woman bureau chief when Rebecca Bell became head of NBC's Paris Bureau. Capt. Fran McKee, 49, in the service for 25 years, became the first woman line officer of the Navy to be promoted to rear admiral. The two previously named women admirals have been chiefs of the Nurse Corps.

Sue Peterson, 5 foot 7, and 31 years old, became the first female physical education instructor in West Point's 174 year history. Not only was Deborah B. Doane of Essex, the Maine Maritime Academy's first female student, but she was its top ranking graduate this year and the first woman in the country to graduate from a four year maritime school. The 26 year old woman graduated with 104 classmates as an ensign with full qualifications as a third mate. Winning 57 per cent of the vote, 20 year old Anna Maria Riccio became the first woman in the Polytechnic Institute of New York's 121 year history to serve as president of its student council.

The engineering and science school has 4,600 students, of which fewer than 5 per cent are women. Women total only 2 per cent of the New York Law School's graduates, but TWO WOMEN walk toward orientation area at Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, as they join other female cadets as the first women admitted to the service academy. The young women started their academy careers by lining up under sign, at top of picture, a phrase from a poem written in the 1800s and adopted by an academy former chief of staff. Man Overboard In Annapolis, 18 year old Toni Louise Zimmerman, saying that her name infringed on her officially changed it to Zimmerwoman. The election of Dixy Lee Ray as governor of Washington gave the nation a second female state government head, along with Gov.

Ella Grasso of Connecticut. But otherwise gains were meager. There will be no woman in the Senate and the number of women holding House seats will decline by one, to 18, in the next Congress. Rep. Leonor K.

Sullivan, 72 year old dean of the women members of Congress and the only one to chair a House committee, retired. However, women everywhere were increasingly active in politics. Anne Armstrong of Texas, 48, a longtime Republican party worker and former White House counselor, was named by President Ford as the 'B i hi and Michael O'Hara, 47 seventh marriage for her; fourth for him. Contributing to the year's divorce statistics was television's Barbara Walters, who was granted an uncontested divorce from Lee Guber. For the second time, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were divorced.

She iater married former Navy Secretary John Warner. Princess Margaret, 45, and the Earl of Snowden, 46, separated after 16 years of marriage. Along with the marriage rate, the country's birth rate continued to decline; the National Center for Health Statistics said that the 1975 birth rate had dropped to 14.8 births per 1,000 population, compared with 14.9 in 1974. Abortion continued to be a big issue, even in the election campaign and in rulings on two major issues the Supreme Court declared: A woman does not need the consent of her husband to have an abortion; and a girl under 18 does not need the consent of a parent to have an abortion. Meanwhile, a U.N.

study reported that more than two thirds of the world's women now have access to abortions in their countries double the number of five years ago. ERAmerica, an organization whose sole objective is ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, opened its national headquarters in Washington in February with a S50 gift from Betty Ford. Officials said the organization would combat "the lies and misrepresentations of the opposition." However, backers of the amendment who had hoped to see it ratified during the bicentennial year were disappointed. At year's end it was stalled, having passed in 34 of the 38 states needed for ratification. The first International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women was held in Brussels with women from 28 countries attending.

Organizers said the five day meeting produced a permanent network of contacts for planning international feminist strategy. In sports, too, women were seeking to prove their equality with men. Janet Guthrie, 38 year old physicist who tried but failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, became the first female driver to participate in a major stock race. She finished loth in the $249,155 World 600 at Charlotte, N.C. Sheila Young, 25, of Detroit, became the first American athlete male or female to win three medals in one year in the winter Olympics.

At Innsbruck, Austria, she captured the gold (500 meters), silver (1.500 meters) and bronze (1,000 meters) medals in speed skating. Dorothy Hamill, 19, of Riverside, won the gold medal in figure skating in the Olympics, the women's world championship and the U.S. national competition. Later, she gave up her amateur standing to skate in the Ice Capades, signing a two year contract. and American stage, films and television.

Lily Pons, 71, the leading coloratura soprano at the New York Metropolitan Opera for more than 25 years; Dame Agatha Christie, 85, one of the world's most prolific mystery writers; Franziska Braun. 90, mother of Eva Braun and mother in law of Adolf Hitler. Kathryn Kuhlman, believed to be in her early 60s, evangelist and faith healer; Angela Baddeley, 71, the actress who played Mrs. Bridges, the cook in the popular "Upstairs, Downstairs" television series; Florence Bright Note A government study stressed statistically what the law already requires: women should be considered equal to men in granting credit. Women's earning power and income stability make them as good a risk as men when it comes to buying a home, according to the study from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Ballard, 32, one of the original members of the Su premes singing trio, who spent the last few years of her life living on welfare, of cardiac arrest; Doris Miles Disney, 68, leading mystery novel writer with 47 books to her credit. Mary Margaret McBride, 76, the undisputed first lady of radio for more than 20 years; Abby Rockefeller Mauze, 72, philanthropist, only daughter and eldest of the six children of John D. Rockefeller Martha Mitchell, 57, estranged wife of former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell and outspoken critic of the Nixon administration during the Watergate scandal, of cancer of the bone marrow; Dame Sybil Thorndike, 93, grand old lady of the British stage, whose career spanned 72 years.

Lotte Lehmann, 88, internationally famed opera singer and performer for more than two generations; Dame Edith Evans, 88, British actress; Connee Boswell, 68, popular singing star in the '30s and '40s; Claire Ruth, 76, widow of baseball's immortal Babe; Rosina Lhevinne, 96, concert pianist and teacher; Rosalind Russell, 63, stage and screen actress. In the Summer Olympics in Montreal, Nadia Comaneci of Romania became the darling of the press, the spectators and the television audiences. The 14 year old, 88 pound gymnast amassed seven perfect 10.0 scores and came away with three of the five individual gold medals, including the all around championship as the world's best woman gymnast. JoAnne Carner, 37, won the U.S. Women's Open golf championship, and Judy Rankin, 31.

was honored by the Ladies Professional Golf Association as the first woman golfer to earn $100, 000 in a single year. Tina Bischoff, 17, of Columbus, Ohio, broke the world record for a one way swim of the English Channel, crossing from Dover to the French coast in 9 hours 3 minutes. Australian Linda McGill, 29, became the first person to swim around Hong Kong Island, a distance of more than 28 miles. "My main problem was boredom and jelly fish," she said of the 17 hour battle in rough seas, adding that she swam topless most of the way because a strap was irritating her. Chris Evert her second" Wimbledon women's singles title and retained her U.S.

Open tennis title both with wins over Evonne Goolagong. The world's top ranked woman player, 21, racked up numerous other wins during the year, including the $50, 000 first prize in the L'Eggs World Series of Women's Tennis. She received a trophy and a check for $10, 000 as winner of the first Woman Athlete of the World award and was voted women Sports Athlete of the Year by readers of that magazine. The Women's Tennis led by Miss Evert, announced that unless women got the same prize money as the men, the world's top women tennis stars would boycott Wimbledon in 1977. In a compromise agreement, the women's purse was made 80 per cent of the men's.

Anna Leider, 16 year old Alexandria, high school junior, won first prize in the National Football League's Bicentennial scholarship essay contest, discussing the NFL's role in American history. Deaths during the year included: British actress Margaret Leighton, 53, star of British.