The 12 women who were honored on Sunday -- six of them posthumously -- represent a timeless beauty that is more about legacy than leg. It's the kind of grace radiated by people who intuitively give more than they get and expect nothing in return.
The women honored this year are Liz Bricker, Sonia DeHart, Joyce Hollister, Betty Jacobsen, E-Ann Logan and Suzy Stockdale and, posthumously, Grace Dangberg, Anna Neddenriep Dressler, Dr. Eliza Cook, Anna Heise, Alma Yparraguirre, and Jane Rosenbrock.
When 9-year-old Anna Neddenriep was frosting her first cake 100 years ago, little did she know that she was laying the foundation for a tradition of family and service that would earn her a spot on this year's women's history roster.
The same can be said for Grace Dangberg who returned to Carson Valley with her college diploma to become the bookkeeper for her family's immense land and livestock company as well has a historian and author in her own right.
Jane Rosenbrock cut hair for 60 years, never turning her back on anyone who needed help. She was an advocate and example for the disabled, living half a century with epilepsy. All the stories, on file at the Carson Valley Museum and Cultural Center, share that "thread through time" of service and devotion.
Dr. Eliza Cook literally blazed a trail for woman who would follow this pioneer in the medical profession.
Anna Neddenriep, who grew up to marry Fred Dressler, couldn't have imagined that her daughter Luetta Dressler Bergevin would share that cake-baking story with the hundreds of people who attended Sunday's event. Anna may have been surprised to see Luetta add to the occasion by wearing a dress that Anna sewed for her decades ago.
The theme was Threads Through Time, Carson Valley Historical Society Women's History Remembering Project, but it could have been the valley's take on 6 degrees of separation (or less). That's the theory that we're all interconnected within five or six people. Luetta said that in addition to her mother, whom she nominated, she was related to three other people.
During the presentations, we learned that Jane Rosenbrock shortened Eleanorann Logan's first name to E-Ann. If you observed the hundreds of people who packed the Old Gym Playhouse on Sunday, you could see old friendships rekindled. The event has become an unofficial Cousin Valley reunion and learning opportunity for the many newcomers eager to get a handle on this place they call home.
The afternoon also featured the unveiling of the Millennium Membership Quilt, a 45-square work of art devoted to the history of the Carson Valley, made by volunteer quilters. Names of the members of the Carson Valley Museum and Cultural Center are embroidered on the edges of the quilt.
The young women brimming with talent, intelligence and beauty in this weekend's scholarship pageant may wonder what they have in common with the 55- to 95-year-olds honored Sunday or girls born more than 100 years ago.
You may find that your dreams and aspirations aren't so different from those of girls who were your ages at the turn of the 20th century. They grew up to be writers, artists, mothers, teachers, businesswomen, dancers and doctors.
Whatever you do on Sunday -- hip-hop dance number, piano solo or comedy monologue -- may be part of a grandchild's anecdote 100 years later as you are chosen for a future women's remembering project.
After all, 95-year-old Sonia DeHart, on stage Sunday at the Old Gym Playhouse in Gardnerville, danced her way from the family ranch to Radio City Music Hall and the silver screen and back again.
Sheila Gardner is the night desk editor of the Nevada Appeal.
