5 visionaries.
3) Viola Smith Frances Carroll & Her Coquettes Featuring Drummer Viola Smith
Born at a time when women still didn’t have the right to vote, Viola saw far beyond her era. She envisioned a world where women governed States and central banks, led industries and corporations, flew airplanes, raced cars, and launched interplanetary missiles, doing—all as women and often better—all those things men thought only they could do.
Like playing the drums.
And playing them well. They called her "the Gene Krupa in a skirt," and the compliment was aimed at Gene.
Sitting behind those drums—she was beautiful and incredibly feminine to me.
Today, she is 105 years old and, when she feels like it, still plays the drums. Happy Birthday Viola Smith!
And she is still gorgeous.