International Women’s Day – Who’s Your Inspiration?

[Pamela Hill Lappin]

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. ⁣ 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. ⁣ 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. ⁣ 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. Photos copyright © 2026 Madge’s Hatbox Vintage. Join our Facebook group, Mad About Vintage, for weekly specials.

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