The Women
John McFall was surrounded by girls and women: his mother, two grandmothers, eight sisters, and two aunts, eventually a wife and daughter. He wrote about an olive-skinned baby sister, Ellen, who died in infancy and a daughter, Estelle, who died soon after her birth. His mother, Mary Ann, wrote a Will that left rental property to her unmarried daughters and a house for them to live in. His sisters included: Thomasina, known as Tommie, who managed the pharmacy. Laura taught school but also worked in insurance and the YWCA. Julia Elizabeth, known as Lizzie, taught school. They were all members of the Phillis Wheatley Literary and Social Club. John’s other sisters married and moved away. Eloise died in childbirth near Pittsburgh. Mary Ann moved to Louisville and Charlotte, known as Lottie, to West Virginia. Mary Ann studied music at Columbia University and became an accomplished seamstress; Charlotte earned a master's degree in mathematics from the University of Chicago and taught at West Virginia State College for decades. One of her students was Katherine Johnson, one of the computers in the film, Hidden Figures.