Laurel Thatcher Ulrich once wrote “well-behaved women seldom make history.” These three women made a remarkable impact on the Toppenish community. The town ensured people would not forget these women and their accomplishments by painting murals of them around town. Our production crew joined Jim Duke and his team for a mural tour of Toppenish, Wash.

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Full Transcript:

- [Jim] And over on the left hand side, this is Maude Lillie Bolin. Now, Maude Lillie Bolin, she was a full-blooded Indian lady, lived her all of her life, and she was with us from 1896 to 1978. She was quite a woman. The first woman pilot in this area, and she got her flying license from Orville Wright, and she took her maiden voyage down to Portland, and it was so cold, I guess, they had to have a big heavy blanket.

- She used to like to walk on the wings and jump out of planes. She was the first Indian pilot in this area.

- Yeah, she liked to do all that stuff, daredevil, didn't care nothing about, and on the left hand side, this is Josephine Bowzer Lillie Parker. This is Maude Lillie Bolin's mother. Remember the gal with the airplane? Well, this ole gal here was her mother. She had 80 acres of land right here in Toppenish. She was known as the mother of Toppenish. She broke it up and sold lots, $25 and $30 a lot. Quite a gal right there, and over here on the right hand side, this is Clara Kraff. Clara Kraff was a widow woman. She come into Toppenish in the '30s. She was gonna make her fortune picking hops. Well, she figured out that wouldn't work because you could pick hops all day behind, never make enough to pay for supper. So she started a store called Kraffs Men's and Ladies' Apparel Store, and it's still in business right now today, and by new owners of course, but it's, they were right there for a long time and did a lot of things. Great lady, and if you look at her right straight on, you can see on her left side of the face, why that's a young lady. If you look at the right side of her face, why it's an old person. So you got the young and the old right there.

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