Lucy Stone - Boston, MA - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

Lucy Stone was the first woman in the state of Massachusetts to receive a college degree and, in accordance with her final wishes, was the first person of either sex to be cremated in Massachusetts. Moreover, her sister-in-law, Elizabeth Blackwell, was the first woman in America to receive a medical degree. But what she is mostly known for, at least in the last part of the nineteenth century, was being the first woman to retain her maiden name after marriage. Subsequent women who followed suit became known as ‘Lucy Stoners.’

At an early age, Lucy Stone experienced inequity when her brothers were allowed to attend college but she wasn’t, even though she was much brighter. She put herself through college intent on becoming a public speaker. And indeed she did become an orator, one of the most prolific in the nineteenth century on the topics of women’s suffrage, abolition of slavery and women’s rights in general. She was also involved with or instrumental in the establishment of many of the suffragist and abolitionist organizations of that time.

Not wanting to be subordinate to any man, Lucy Stone was intent on never marrying. But she was courted by Henry Blackwell, brother of the aforementioned Elizabeth Blackwell, who promised an equitable arrangement. After a couple of years of resistance, Lucy Stone finally relented and married Henry Blackwell but retained her name. The couple had one child.

Lucy Stone died in October of 1893 at the age of 75. Her body was cremated in the new crematorium at Forest Hills Cemetery in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston. Her ashes are interred in the chapel that now bears her name. Though she never took her husband’s name, her urn is only marked with the name Blackwell. In 1968, Lucy Stone was honored on a definitive postage stamp replacing one which bore the likeness of fellow suffragist Susan B. Anthony. And, in an interesting twist, a few years later her sister-in-law, Elizabeth Blackwell, also appeared on a postage stamp of the same series.
(Source: wikipedia.org; womenshistory.org)

Description: See Long Description above. Date of birth: 08/13/1818 Date of death: 10/18/1893 Area of notoriety: Historical Figure Marker Type: Urn Setting: Indoor Visiting Hours/Restrictions: 8:30 am to 4:30 pm Fee required?: No Web site: [Web Link]

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