International Women’s Day
In honor of International Women’s Day I take a moment to remember my grandmother Madge Beals Meredith. Naming my online shop #MadgesHatboxVintage, was loving nod to her years as a #milliner. Then a chance remark by my aunt sent me on a yearlong journey in search of a hat shop my grandmother opened in Mississippi in 1917.
![Madge celebrates International Women's Day](https://madgeshatbox.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Madge-Creager-studio-IG-1024x1024.jpg)
The Story of Madge
After securing funds for millinery supplies from a woman milliner in #Chanute Kansas with whom Madge had apprenticed, she traveled alone from farm country to the rough and tumble railroad town of Scooba, Mississippi hoping to find her fortune as a milliner.
Her life – as a child traveling in a covered wagon with her parents from Indiana to #Kansas; homesteading in a sod house; leaving high school to start a career in hat making; her drive to succeed, and her raising a brood of successful women continue to be an inspiration to me.
![](https://madgeshatbox.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/sod-house-2-1024x760.jpg)
Madge’s courageous journey in 1917 covers me in loving armor each day as I go out into the world to advocate for #vintage and how every person can find their unique style. Not based on trends or fast fashion, but from the spirit within you and from those who came before.
![](https://madgeshatbox.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Madge-1929-iG.jpg)
![My Grandmother's Millinery Ad 1917](https://madgeshatbox.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Beals-ad-940x1024.jpg)
Madge’s life lived created a line of entrepreneurs down through my mom and finally to me. I am eternally grateful Madge was in my life and I work hard each day to make her proud. I hope she is.
Read the entire story here . . .
Who’s your inspiration?
Who’s your inspiration on International Women’s Day? Please comment below.
![MadgesHatbox top vintage blog](https://madgeshatbox.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/signature-1.png)