3. Margaret Sheehan Blodgett - July 16, 1926

Margaret Sheehan Blodgett was born on October 13, 1897, in Manchester, New Hampshire and graduated from Mount St. Mary School in Hooksett, New Hampshire. She received her B.A. from Trinity College in Washington, D.C., in 1919. She attended evening courses at Portia Law School in Boston for four years and graduated in 1925. Attorney Blodgett was admitted to practice in New Hampshire on July 16, 1926. She specialized in corporate law and was also an insurance agent.

Attorney Blodgett was the first passenger to fly cross-country from Boston to California, as the winner of a Lydia Pinkham Award for the best essay explaining why she wanted to go to California. The flight was originally scheduled to last just five days, but delays and 11 forced landings extended her journey to 23 days.

Attorney Blodgett was active in the Manchester community, and in 1986 the New Hampshire Commission on the Status of Women honored her as one of New Hampshire's "unsung heroines." Attorney Blodgett was deceased in Centerville, Massachusetts in June 1987. She was the widow of Col. Robert F. Blodgett, and she is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. 

The headstone of Margaret Sheehan Blodgett and her husband, Col. Robert F. Blodgett, at Arlington National Cemetery. Source: ANC Explorer