Historical Women of Kansas City
As a Kansas City tour guide, I’ve learned a lot about the business leaders of the past—real estate developers, architects, attorneys, newspaper owners, and the men behind the development of our streetcar system. So much of the Kansas City history we hear centers on the men who built, developed, and shaped the city we know today. While their contributions are certainly worth telling, there is another side of Kansas City’s story that deserves just as much attention: the women who helped shape its growth.
When you start looking for them, you discover an amazing number of women who saw a problem, they recognized an opportunity, or they simply believed Kansas City could be better—and then they did something about it. They weren’t always building skyscrapers or developing neighborhoods. Sometimes they were creating organizations, fighting for change, supporting their communities, preserving history, or opening doors for the people who came after them. Their stories add another important—and often overlooked—chapter to Kansas City history.
One of my favorites is Nell Donnelly and her dress-manufacturing company. The structure of her business was far ahead of its time, offering employees better wages, health insurance, and educational opportunities for both employees and their families.
Most of us know the Kauffman family, but there is much more to their story than the name on the ballpark. Ewing and Muriel Kauffman built a successful pharmaceutical company and gave generously to Kansas City. Their philanthropy supported education, healthcare, the arts, children, and families throughout the region. Muriel, in particular, became a major force in Kansas City’s cultural and civic life.
However, what I’m really here to tell you about is Alice Berry Graham and her sister, Katherine Berry Richardson—two women whose determination and dedication would leave an everlasting mark on Kansas City.
Alice Berry was born in 1850, and her younger sister, Katherine, was born in 1858. Their father, Stephen, was a farmer and grain-mill operator. After their mother died in 1861, he raised his daughters and later worked in the oil industry in Pennsylvania. He was determined to give his daughters an education and managed to send both of them through high school at a time when girls did not always have that opportunity. To me, that is huge.
The two sisters also helped each other build their careers in medicine. Alice taught school to help pay for Katherine’s education. Later, after Katherine became a doctor, she returned the favor by teaching so Alice could finish dental school. Talk about a sisterly exchange! In late 1887, the two sisters started a medical practice together in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Katherine married in August 1893. Alice was also married, although the records do not reveal the exact year. By 1897, both sisters were living in Kansas City, Missouri, where they established a medical practice in the downtown area. But they quickly ran into a major obstacle: no hospital in Kansas City would allow a woman physician on its staff. So the sisters found another way. They rented beds in a small maternity and children’s hospital so they could care for their patients.
In 1899, Richardson and Graham decided to purchase the hospital. They named it the Free Bed Fund Association for Crippled, Deformed, and Ruptured Children. That small hospital would soon become Children’s Mercy Hospital. A larger building was purchased in 1904, but within a decade the growing hospital needed an even larger facility.
Alice Berry Graham died of cancer in 1913, but Katherine Berry Richardson continued her tireless dedication to caring for sick children. Construction on a four-story hospital began in 1916 and was completed in 1917. At Katherine’s insistence, the cornerstone inscription honored her sister: “In 1897 Dr. Alice Berry Graham founded this hospital for sick and crippled children – to be forever non-sectarian, non-local, and for those who cannot pay.”
Katherine Richardson had already helped build Children’s Mercy, but she wasn’t satisfied with having a great children’s hospital that couldn’t serve every child equally. Segregation created another barrier. So, Richardson partnered with Dr. J. Edward Perry and Wheatley-Provident Hospital to create a pediatric ward for Black children. She didn’t have the power to simply erase segregation. Instead, she found a way to work around it and provide care anyway.
Katherine never retired and continued performing surgery until just a few days before her death on June 3, 1933. In 1970, Children’s Mercy Hospital opened a new facility at 24th and Gillham Road, where it continues the tradition established by its founders: caring for sick children regardless of their ability to pay.
Today, Children’s Mercy has grown far beyond the small hospital created by two determined sisters. Its service area extends across Missouri and Kansas, covering roughly a 200-mile radius, with hundreds of inpatient beds and services reaching children throughout the region.
Alice Berry Graham and Katherine Berry Richardson are just two of the many women who helped shape Kansas City. The more I dig into their stories, the more I realize how much of Kansas City history we may have missed simply because we weren’t looking in the right places. These women didn’t always have the titles, buildings, or political power that made their male counterparts famous. But they saw opportunities, solved problems, created institutions, and changed Kansas City.
This article is just the tip of the iceberg. I’m now taking my Women Who Shaped Kansas City presentation on the road and offering it for speaking engagements and groups interested in Kansas City history. If your organization, club, community group, or event would like to learn more about the women behind Kansas City’s history, I’d love to bring these stories to you.
Sherrie Ortiz
Kansas City Tour Guide
Just One Day Travel Tours
[email protected]
www.justonedaytraveltours.com
Walking and bus tours are also available.
