All over Wisconsin, that is.

I realized looking back at my posts that I have sorely and unintentionally neglected my female relatives. And even though I said I’d be moving on from the Biesemeyers, this entry also hails from that branch of the family tree and deserves mention.

Anita Biesemeyer, my 3rd cousin, 2x removed, is an award-winning journalist. Her nom de plume is “Anita Black”. Try as I might, I was unable to find a biographical sketch that summarizes her life’s work. But I know from numerous newspaper clippings that she wrote extensively for the Milwaukee Sentinel and that her articles were picked up by other newspapers in Wisconsin and elsewhere. In February of 1967, her hometown newspaper in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, proudly reported that Sentinel staff writer Anita had won her second “Lulu” from the American Institute of Men’s and Boy’s Wear. As you might have guessed, Anita wrote about fashion. Her weekly columns, entitled “Memo to Men” and “Memo to Young Men”, gave advice about what trendy men and boys should be wearing. Later that same year, she also won the Caswell-Massey Fashion award for men’s fashion reporting. Clearly she knows quite a lot about men’s fashion.

Her writing was not limited to fashion reporting, however. Anita also wrote about women’s issues and social trends beyond fashion.

I’d like to think that the men of Wisconsin paid a bit more attention to how they dressed thanks to my distant cousin. I guess it’s the women of Wisconsin that should be thanking her. Okay, so now I’ll really move on from the Biesemeyers.

Kenfolk: Tranthams
Relation: 3rd cousin, 2x removed
Common ancestors: Frederick and Anna (Eikermann) Biesemeyer, are my 4th great grandparents, and Anita’s 2nd great grandparents

References:
Miley, M. (1967 February 23). Society Spindle. Manitowoc Herald-Times. p. 4-M.
Miley, M. (1967 October 26). Society Spindle. Manitowoc Herald-Times. p. 6-M.