BADASSES

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Badass:

A person considered impressive due to courage, skill, and/or toughness.

- Wiktionary

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SUSANNA SALTER:

Summary:

Susanna Salter (née Kinsey; 1860 – 1961) was an American politician and activist. She served as mayor of Argonia, Kansas, becoming the first woman elected to serve as mayor in the United States and one of the first women to serve in any political office in the United States.

About:

The daughter of descendants of Quaker colonists from England, at age 12 she moved to Kansas with her parents. In 1878, she entered Kansas State Agricultural College (present-day Kansas State University) but was forced to drop out six weeks short of graduation due to illness. While a student, she met Lewis Salter, an aspiring attorney and the son of former Kansas Lieutenant Governor. They married soon thereafter and moved to Argonia, where she was active in the local Woman's Christian Temperance Union and Prohibition Party organisations.

In 1883, she gave birth to the first baby born in Argonia, she and Lewis having a total of nine children, one of whom was born during her tenure as mayor and died in infancy. Following the city's incorporation in 1885, her father and husband were elected as the city's first mayor and city clerk, respectively.

Election:

Salter’s name had been placed on a slate of candidates as a stunt by a group of men hoping to secure a loss that would humiliate women and discourage them from participation in politics. They submitted a list of candidates’ names from the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, hoping to also humiliate that organisation, thinking that no man would vote for a female mayor.

Because candidates did not have to be made public before election day, Salter herself did not know she was on the ballot until the local Republican Party sent representatives to her house to see if she was actually running for office.

On election day itself, she agreed to accept office if elected,

Salter won over 60% of the vote, being male voting in that women could not vote at that time.

Although her term was uneventful, her election generated national interest from the press, sparking a debate regarding the feasibility of other towns following Argonia's lead, which ranged from objections to "petticoat rule" to a "wait-and-see" attitude.

After a year in office, she declined to seek reelection.

As compensation for her year's service, she was paid one dollar (equivalent to $35 in 2024).

Death:

Salter died in 1961, in Norman, Oklahoma, two weeks after her 101st birthday, and was buried in Argonia, alongside her husband.

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JOSEPH ‘GABE’ SONNIER:

Joseph "Gabe" Sonnier was the janitor at Port Barre Elementary School in Louisiana.

In 1985 the principal of the school, Principal Wesley, pulled him aside and said “I'd rather see you grading papers than picking them up.”

He took the words to heart and at the age of 39, whenever he wasn’t cleaning classrooms, he was studying in them.

He got his Bachelor's degree and became a teacher in one of the very classrooms he used to clean.

He later obtained his Master's degree.

Port Barre Elementary announced its new principal in November 2013, Gabe Sonnier, the new principal of the school he had cleaned for 27 years.

"Don't let your situation that you're in now define what you're going to become later," he said. "I always tell them it's not where you start, it's how you finish."

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SGT ALVIN YORK:

Summary:

Alvin York Single Handedly Killed 28 Germans, Captured 132 More, and Seized 32 Machine Guns

About:

When America joined WWI in 1917, there was little to indicate that Alvin York (1887 – 1964) would become one of the war’s greatest heroes. A devoted churchgoer from rural Tennessee, York read the Bible as prohibiting killing, so he became a pacifist. When he received his draft registration card, he requested an exemption as a conscientious objector.

His request was denied, and he was drafted, sent to boot camp, then assigned to the 82nd Infantry Division. In the 82nd, York got over his pacifism after his commanding officers used Biblical passages to convince him of the morality of fighting for a just cause. He was shipped to France, and by October of 1918, York had been promoted to corporal.

He was sent in a party of 4 non-commissioned officers and 13 privates to infiltrate German lines and silence a machine gun position. However, the German position turned out to be far stronger than intelligence had indicated. As York’s party made its way through broken terrain, they entered the killing fields of over 35 well hidden machine guns. They opened up, and within seconds, nine GIs, including the other three non-commissioned officers, had been cut down.

York suddenly found himself the most senior non-com, in charge of the survivors. As he described what happened next: “You never heard such a racket in all of your life. … As soon as the machine guns opened fire on me, I began to exchange shots with them. There were over 30 of them in continuous action, and all I could do was touch the Germans off just as fast as I could. I was sharp shooting. … All the time I kept yelling at them to come down. I didn’t want to kill any more than I had to. But it was they or I. And I was giving them the best I had.”

From a standing position, then from a prone position, York simply drew beads with his rifle on any German heads that popped up, and put them down like it was target practice. All while a hail of bullets from dozens of German rifles and machine guns were directed his way. York’s rifle eventually ran out of bullets, so six Germans took the opportunity to charge him with bayonets. He took out his .45 pistol, and shot all six before they reached him: “I teched off the sixth man first; then the fifth; then the fourth; then the third; and so on. That’s the way we shoot wild turkeys at home. You see we don’t want the front ones to know that we’re getting the back ones, and then they keep on coming until we get them all“.

The Germans finally had enough of the killing machine that none could seemingly halt. An officer raised his hands, walked up to York, and told him “If you don’t shoot anymore, I will make them give up“. That was fine by York. When it was over, he had single handedly killed 28 Germans, captured 132 more, plus 32 machine guns. The exploit earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor, and made him the war’s greatest American hero.