Bessie B. Stringfield, who rode her 1978 Harley Davidson motorcycle to and from church until she was in her 70s, died Tuesday. She was 81. "I really am hoping to have a chance to give Bessie the long overdue recognition she deserves for breaking down barriers not only for women but for blacks as well," said Alice Stone, who interviewed Stringfield for a Public Broadcasting documentary about women motorcyclists. Stringfield, who was inducted into the American Motorcycle Association's Hall of Fame in 1990, was born in Kingston, Jamaica. She was raised in Boston and moved to Florida in 1939. During World War II she was a motorcycle dispatch rider. She bought a house in Opa-locka in 1952, Stone said. "In 1959, when she got bored with being a cook for private families, she became a licensed practical nurse," The Herald reported in a 1981 article. Reporter Bea L. Hines remembered as a child watching Stringfield ride in the Orange Blossom Parade in Overtown. "Bessie cut a striking figure as she led the parade, the only woman among the other bikers," Hines said. Stringfield never believed in doing things like everyone else. "Nice girls didn't go around riding motorcycles in those days," she said in 1981. Friends called her "B.B.," said Anna Rolle-Cook. "She tried to get me to ride her motorcycle, but I wouldn't." Said the Rev. Charles Mallen: "She rode through every one of the 48 states. She was a member of the Motor Maids of America. She told me she was 16 years old when she rode her first motorcycle." Stringfield was honored in August 1990 during the opening of the Motorcycle Heritage Museum in Westerville, Ohio. "Her photo was taken with Jay Leno," said Paul Jamiol, an artist from Boston, who was commissioned to include Stringfield in a mural of women motorcyclists. "I met her and fell in love with the woman. She was the kind of woman you couldn't help but keep in touch with." "I called her my motorcycle kid," said Arlene Catalano, the director of Catalano's Nurse Registry in Hialeah, where Stringfield worked as a nurse for about 20 years. A private memorial service was held Friday at St. Martha's Catholic Church. "She had requested no services but we didn't listen," said the Rev. John McLaughlin, pastor at St. Martha's. "We still wanted to pray for her. The bonding we had at the service was all about her. One man came all the way from Texas. Two bikers were there. I'd say 80 percent of the people at the service were not Catholic." Arrangements were made by Range Funeral Home. There are no survivors.
From: The Miami Herald, Miami, Florida, on Saturday, February 20, 1993
Her parents were James R. White & Maggie M. Cherry per her Social Security Application.
Pioneer African-American female motorcyclist.
In 1930 Bessie Stringfield became the first African American woman to ride her motorcycle across the United States solo. Her feat was credited with breaking down barriers for both women and African-American motorcyclists.
Born Betsy Leonora Ellis on February 9, 1911, in Kingston, Jamaica, she was the daughter of Maria Ellis, a domestic servant, and James Ferguson, her employer. Betsy and her parents migrated to Boston, Massachusetts but both died of smallpox. Orphaned when Betsy was five years old, she was adopted by a wealthy Irish woman who raised her as a Catholic. It is unclear when and why Bessie rather than Betsy became her given name. On Bessie's sixteenth birthday, her mother gave her a motorcycle, "even though good girls didn't ride motorcycles."
In 1927 Ellis climbed aboard her first bike, an Indian Scout. Although she had no prior knowledge of operating the controls, she started the motorcycle and easily mastered it. Between the 1930s and the early 1940s, Ellis made eight long-distance solo rides across the United States. During this time, she earned money from performing motorcycle stunts in carnival shows. Due to her skin color, Ellis was often denied accommodations while traveling and was forced to sleep on her motorcycle at gasoline stations.
During World War II, Bessie Ellis worked for the U.S. Army as a civilian motorcycle dispatch rider, carrying documents between domestic bases on her Harley-Davidson bike. The only woman in her unit, she completed rigorous training maneuvers including learning how to weave a makeshift bridge from rope and tree limbs to cross swamps. Ellis regularly encountered racial prejudice while on the road. Once she was followed by a man in a pickup truck who deliberately ran her into a ditch, violently knocking her off her bike.
In between her travels, Ellis wed and divorced six times. After she and her first husband were deeply saddened by the loss of three babies, she had no more children. Upon divorcing her third husband, Arthur Stringfield, she said, "He asked me to keep his name because I'd made it famous!"
By the early 1950s, Stringfield ended her motorcycle odysseys across the United States. She bought a house in Miami, Florida, suburb and became a licensed practical nurse. She continued to ride locally, however, and founded the Iron Horse Motorcycle Club. Disguised as a man, Stringfield won a local motorcycle race but was denied the prize money when she took off her helmet. Her other antics, including riding her Harley while standing in its saddle, attracted local press attention. Reporters called Stringfield, the "Negro Motorcycle Queen" at first and then later the "Motorcycle Queen of Miami." In the absence of children, she found joy in her pet dogs, some of whom paraded with her on her motorcycle.
In 1990 when the American Motorcycle Association (AMA) opened the first Motorcycle Heritage Museum in Pickerington, Ohio, Stringfield was featured in its inaugural exhibit on Women in Motorcycling. Late in life, Stringfield suffered from symptoms caused by an enlarged heart. She died in Opa-laka, Florida, in 1993 at the age of eighty-two.
A decade later, the AMA instituted the Bessie Stringfield Award to honor women who are leaders in motorcycling. In 2002 she was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame.
Sources:
Motorcycle Museum Hall of Fame, Bessie Stringfield, http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame; "Bessie Stringfield, Motorcyclist"; Good Spark Garage, http://goodsparkgarage.com/bessie-stringfield-motorcyclist/; "Bessie Stringfield, a True Legend," Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys, March 2, 2012, http://www.russbrown.com/blog/bessie-stringfield-a-true-legend; Natalie Windsor and Ann Ferrar, Hear Me Roar: Women, Motorcycles and the Rapture of the Road (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1996).
Contributor:
Nielsen, Euell A.
Independent Historian
From: The Miami Herald, Miami, Florida, on Saturday, February 20, 1993
Her parents were James R. White & Maggie M. Cherry per her Social Security Application.
Pioneer African-American female motorcyclist.
In 1930 Bessie Stringfield became the first African American woman to ride her motorcycle across the United States solo. Her feat was credited with breaking down barriers for both women and African-American motorcyclists.
Born Betsy Leonora Ellis on February 9, 1911, in Kingston, Jamaica, she was the daughter of Maria Ellis, a domestic servant, and James Ferguson, her employer. Betsy and her parents migrated to Boston, Massachusetts but both died of smallpox. Orphaned when Betsy was five years old, she was adopted by a wealthy Irish woman who raised her as a Catholic. It is unclear when and why Bessie rather than Betsy became her given name. On Bessie's sixteenth birthday, her mother gave her a motorcycle, "even though good girls didn't ride motorcycles."
In 1927 Ellis climbed aboard her first bike, an Indian Scout. Although she had no prior knowledge of operating the controls, she started the motorcycle and easily mastered it. Between the 1930s and the early 1940s, Ellis made eight long-distance solo rides across the United States. During this time, she earned money from performing motorcycle stunts in carnival shows. Due to her skin color, Ellis was often denied accommodations while traveling and was forced to sleep on her motorcycle at gasoline stations.
During World War II, Bessie Ellis worked for the U.S. Army as a civilian motorcycle dispatch rider, carrying documents between domestic bases on her Harley-Davidson bike. The only woman in her unit, she completed rigorous training maneuvers including learning how to weave a makeshift bridge from rope and tree limbs to cross swamps. Ellis regularly encountered racial prejudice while on the road. Once she was followed by a man in a pickup truck who deliberately ran her into a ditch, violently knocking her off her bike.
In between her travels, Ellis wed and divorced six times. After she and her first husband were deeply saddened by the loss of three babies, she had no more children. Upon divorcing her third husband, Arthur Stringfield, she said, "He asked me to keep his name because I'd made it famous!"
By the early 1950s, Stringfield ended her motorcycle odysseys across the United States. She bought a house in Miami, Florida, suburb and became a licensed practical nurse. She continued to ride locally, however, and founded the Iron Horse Motorcycle Club. Disguised as a man, Stringfield won a local motorcycle race but was denied the prize money when she took off her helmet. Her other antics, including riding her Harley while standing in its saddle, attracted local press attention. Reporters called Stringfield, the "Negro Motorcycle Queen" at first and then later the "Motorcycle Queen of Miami." In the absence of children, she found joy in her pet dogs, some of whom paraded with her on her motorcycle.
In 1990 when the American Motorcycle Association (AMA) opened the first Motorcycle Heritage Museum in Pickerington, Ohio, Stringfield was featured in its inaugural exhibit on Women in Motorcycling. Late in life, Stringfield suffered from symptoms caused by an enlarged heart. She died in Opa-laka, Florida, in 1993 at the age of eighty-two.
A decade later, the AMA instituted the Bessie Stringfield Award to honor women who are leaders in motorcycling. In 2002 she was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame.
Sources:
Motorcycle Museum Hall of Fame, Bessie Stringfield, http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame; "Bessie Stringfield, Motorcyclist"; Good Spark Garage, http://goodsparkgarage.com/bessie-stringfield-motorcyclist/; "Bessie Stringfield, a True Legend," Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys, March 2, 2012, http://www.russbrown.com/blog/bessie-stringfield-a-true-legend; Natalie Windsor and Ann Ferrar, Hear Me Roar: Women, Motorcycles and the Rapture of the Road (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1996).
Contributor:
Nielsen, Euell A.
Independent Historian
Bessie B. Stringfield, who rode her 1978 Harley Davidson motorcycle to and from church until she was in her 70s, died Tuesday. She was 81. "I really am hoping to have a chance to give Bessie the long overdue recognition she deserves for breaking down barriers not only for women but for blacks as well," said Alice Stone, who interviewed Stringfield for a Public Broadcasting documentary about women motorcyclists. Stringfield, who was inducted into the American Motorcycle Association's Hall of Fame in 1990, was born in Kingston, Jamaica. She was raised in Boston and moved to Florida in 1939. During World War II she was a motorcycle dispatch rider. She bought a house in Opa-locka in 1952, Stone said. "In 1959, when she got bored with being a cook for private families, she became a licensed practical nurse," The Herald reported in a 1981 article. Reporter Bea L. Hines remembered as a child watching Stringfield ride in the Orange Blossom Parade in Overtown. "Bessie cut a striking figure as she led the parade, the only woman among the other bikers," Hines said. Stringfield never believed in doing things like everyone else. "Nice girls didn't go around riding motorcycles in those days," she said in 1981. Friends called her "B.B.," said Anna Rolle-Cook. "She tried to get me to ride her motorcycle, but I wouldn't." Said the Rev. Charles Mallen: "She rode through every one of the 48 states. She was a member of the Motor Maids of America. She told me she was 16 years old when she rode her first motorcycle." Stringfield was honored in August 1990 during the opening of the Motorcycle Heritage Museum in Westerville, Ohio. "Her photo was taken with Jay Leno," said Paul Jamiol, an artist from Boston, who was commissioned to include Stringfield in a mural of women motorcyclists. "I met her and fell in love with the woman. She was the kind of woman you couldn't help but keep in touch with." "I called her my motorcycle kid," said Arlene Catalano, the director of Catalano's Nurse Registry in Hialeah, where Stringfield worked as a nurse for about 20 years. A private memorial service was held Friday at St. Martha's Catholic Church. "She had requested no services but we didn't listen," said the Rev. John McLaughlin, pastor at St. Martha's. "We still wanted to pray for her. The bonding we had at the service was all about her. One man came all the way from Texas. Two bikers were there. I'd say 80 percent of the people at the service were not Catholic." Arrangements were made by Range Funeral Home. There are no survivors.
From: The Miami Herald, Miami, Florida, on Saturday, February 20, 1993
Her parents were James R. White & Maggie M. Cherry per her Social Security Application.
Pioneer African-American female motorcyclist.
In 1930 Bessie Stringfield became the first African American woman to ride her motorcycle across the United States solo. Her feat was credited with breaking down barriers for both women and African-American motorcyclists.
Born Betsy Leonora Ellis on February 9, 1911, in Kingston, Jamaica, she was the daughter of Maria Ellis, a domestic servant, and James Ferguson, her employer. Betsy and her parents migrated to Boston, Massachusetts but both died of smallpox. Orphaned when Betsy was five years old, she was adopted by a wealthy Irish woman who raised her as a Catholic. It is unclear when and why Bessie rather than Betsy became her given name. On Bessie's sixteenth birthday, her mother gave her a motorcycle, "even though good girls didn't ride motorcycles."
In 1927 Ellis climbed aboard her first bike, an Indian Scout. Although she had no prior knowledge of operating the controls, she started the motorcycle and easily mastered it. Between the 1930s and the early 1940s, Ellis made eight long-distance solo rides across the United States. During this time, she earned money from performing motorcycle stunts in carnival shows. Due to her skin color, Ellis was often denied accommodations while traveling and was forced to sleep on her motorcycle at gasoline stations.
During World War II, Bessie Ellis worked for the U.S. Army as a civilian motorcycle dispatch rider, carrying documents between domestic bases on her Harley-Davidson bike. The only woman in her unit, she completed rigorous training maneuvers including learning how to weave a makeshift bridge from rope and tree limbs to cross swamps. Ellis regularly encountered racial prejudice while on the road. Once she was followed by a man in a pickup truck who deliberately ran her into a ditch, violently knocking her off her bike.
In between her travels, Ellis wed and divorced six times. After she and her first husband were deeply saddened by the loss of three babies, she had no more children. Upon divorcing her third husband, Arthur Stringfield, she said, "He asked me to keep his name because I'd made it famous!"
By the early 1950s, Stringfield ended her motorcycle odysseys across the United States. She bought a house in Miami, Florida, suburb and became a licensed practical nurse. She continued to ride locally, however, and founded the Iron Horse Motorcycle Club. Disguised as a man, Stringfield won a local motorcycle race but was denied the prize money when she took off her helmet. Her other antics, including riding her Harley while standing in its saddle, attracted local press attention. Reporters called Stringfield, the "Negro Motorcycle Queen" at first and then later the "Motorcycle Queen of Miami." In the absence of children, she found joy in her pet dogs, some of whom paraded with her on her motorcycle.
In 1990 when the American Motorcycle Association (AMA) opened the first Motorcycle Heritage Museum in Pickerington, Ohio, Stringfield was featured in its inaugural exhibit on Women in Motorcycling. Late in life, Stringfield suffered from symptoms caused by an enlarged heart. She died in Opa-laka, Florida, in 1993 at the age of eighty-two.
A decade later, the AMA instituted the Bessie Stringfield Award to honor women who are leaders in motorcycling. In 2002 she was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame.
Sources:
Motorcycle Museum Hall of Fame, Bessie Stringfield, http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame; "Bessie Stringfield, Motorcyclist"; Good Spark Garage, http://goodsparkgarage.com/bessie-stringfield-motorcyclist/; "Bessie Stringfield, a True Legend," Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys, March 2, 2012, http://www.russbrown.com/blog/bessie-stringfield-a-true-legend; Natalie Windsor and Ann Ferrar, Hear Me Roar: Women, Motorcycles and the Rapture of the Road (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1996).
Contributor:
Nielsen, Euell A.
Independent Historian
From: The Miami Herald, Miami, Florida, on Saturday, February 20, 1993
Her parents were James R. White & Maggie M. Cherry per her Social Security Application.
Pioneer African-American female motorcyclist.
In 1930 Bessie Stringfield became the first African American woman to ride her motorcycle across the United States solo. Her feat was credited with breaking down barriers for both women and African-American motorcyclists.
Born Betsy Leonora Ellis on February 9, 1911, in Kingston, Jamaica, she was the daughter of Maria Ellis, a domestic servant, and James Ferguson, her employer. Betsy and her parents migrated to Boston, Massachusetts but both died of smallpox. Orphaned when Betsy was five years old, she was adopted by a wealthy Irish woman who raised her as a Catholic. It is unclear when and why Bessie rather than Betsy became her given name. On Bessie's sixteenth birthday, her mother gave her a motorcycle, "even though good girls didn't ride motorcycles."
In 1927 Ellis climbed aboard her first bike, an Indian Scout. Although she had no prior knowledge of operating the controls, she started the motorcycle and easily mastered it. Between the 1930s and the early 1940s, Ellis made eight long-distance solo rides across the United States. During this time, she earned money from performing motorcycle stunts in carnival shows. Due to her skin color, Ellis was often denied accommodations while traveling and was forced to sleep on her motorcycle at gasoline stations.
During World War II, Bessie Ellis worked for the U.S. Army as a civilian motorcycle dispatch rider, carrying documents between domestic bases on her Harley-Davidson bike. The only woman in her unit, she completed rigorous training maneuvers including learning how to weave a makeshift bridge from rope and tree limbs to cross swamps. Ellis regularly encountered racial prejudice while on the road. Once she was followed by a man in a pickup truck who deliberately ran her into a ditch, violently knocking her off her bike.
In between her travels, Ellis wed and divorced six times. After she and her first husband were deeply saddened by the loss of three babies, she had no more children. Upon divorcing her third husband, Arthur Stringfield, she said, "He asked me to keep his name because I'd made it famous!"
By the early 1950s, Stringfield ended her motorcycle odysseys across the United States. She bought a house in Miami, Florida, suburb and became a licensed practical nurse. She continued to ride locally, however, and founded the Iron Horse Motorcycle Club. Disguised as a man, Stringfield won a local motorcycle race but was denied the prize money when she took off her helmet. Her other antics, including riding her Harley while standing in its saddle, attracted local press attention. Reporters called Stringfield, the "Negro Motorcycle Queen" at first and then later the "Motorcycle Queen of Miami." In the absence of children, she found joy in her pet dogs, some of whom paraded with her on her motorcycle.
In 1990 when the American Motorcycle Association (AMA) opened the first Motorcycle Heritage Museum in Pickerington, Ohio, Stringfield was featured in its inaugural exhibit on Women in Motorcycling. Late in life, Stringfield suffered from symptoms caused by an enlarged heart. She died in Opa-laka, Florida, in 1993 at the age of eighty-two.
A decade later, the AMA instituted the Bessie Stringfield Award to honor women who are leaders in motorcycling. In 2002 she was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame.
Sources:
Motorcycle Museum Hall of Fame, Bessie Stringfield, http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame; "Bessie Stringfield, Motorcyclist"; Good Spark Garage, http://goodsparkgarage.com/bessie-stringfield-motorcyclist/; "Bessie Stringfield, a True Legend," Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys, March 2, 2012, http://www.russbrown.com/blog/bessie-stringfield-a-true-legend; Natalie Windsor and Ann Ferrar, Hear Me Roar: Women, Motorcycles and the Rapture of the Road (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1996).
Contributor:
Nielsen, Euell A.
Independent Historian
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