Woman driver makes history then -- and now

By MARY EVERTZ

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 20, 2000

Alice Huyler Ramsey was the first woman to successfully drive across country, from New York City to San Francisco, in 1909.

In 1909, a mechanically inclined 22-year-old wife and mother named Alice Huyler Ramsey climbed into a forest green Maxwell touring car in New York City at the place where Lincoln Center now stands.

It was pouring down rain, but the undaunted Ramsey declared, "If we are going to go, let's go."

Ramsey knew, come rain or mud or broken axles, that she was about to be the first woman to drive a car across the United States. It was a 4,000-mile journey from New York to San Francisco.

On Tuesday, Ramsey became the first woman inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Mich.

"At a time when roads existed mainly within the confines of cities and mechanical breakdowns were many, the trip was a testament to her love and perseverance," the selection committee said.

At the awards banquet at the Ritz-Carlton in Dearborn, Ramsey, who died in 1983 at 96, was represented by her daughter, Alice Ramsey Bruns of Largo.

Among those also inducted were Warren Avis, founder of the Avis Rent-a-Car; and, posthumously, Enzo Ferrari, founder of the company that bears his name, and Ettore Bugatti, known for his luxury auto designs.

Bruns shares the fact that her mother, a member of the Vassar College class of '07, was president of the Women's Motoring Club of New Jersey when the Maxwell people approached her about making the trip. With the nod from her lawyer husband, John Rathbone Ramsey, Ramsey left her baby son with a nursemaid and set out June 9, 1909, with her two older sisters-in-law and a friend -- none of whom could drive or change a tire.

Maxwell hired the auto editor of the Boston Herald as an advance man, so crowds awaited the dusty and sometimes muddy automobile at every stop. In her memoir Veil, Duster and Tire Iron, Ramsey recalled that one farm woman greeted them from a horse-drawn wagon parked beside a field. "I read about you in the paper," she said, "and I've come 6 miles to see you. I'm sure glad I saw you."

Heavy rains and floods washed out roads and bridges in Iowa, but Ramsey resisted suggestions to ship her Maxwell to Omaha by train. Instead, she drove to Sioux City, then continued into Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada.

Calling on her skills as a mechanic, as well as a driver, Ramsey coaxed her battered vehicle across the desert and over mountains.

The foursome motored into San Francisco on Aug. 10. The journey had taken 41 days.

Bruns, who was born the year after her mother's famous trip, says in later years her mother crossed the country by car some 30 times. Her mother became so enamoured with California that she ultimately moved to Covina.

Through the years, Ramsey's adventure has been written in many publications, including the New York Times, American History, Vassar Views and Exxon USA.

The Smithsonian is also honoring Ramsey in its travel room, says her daughter.

The other Joe Lieberman

On the campaign trail in Orlando earlier this month, Vice President Al Gore and his running mate, Sen. Joe Lieberman, met up with another Joe Lieberman. The 4-year-old charmer is the son of actor Mary Lu Henner and her husband, producer-director Rob Lieberman. The couple and their sons, Nicholas, 6, and Joe, were in Orlando for the national tour of Annie Get Your Gun when they attended the rally.

"We happened to be there the same day that Al Gore and Joe Lieberman were there," says Henner. "The senator said, "I never met a Joseph Leiberman I didn't like' and gave him a big hug," Henner says.

The vice president thought the meeting of the two Joe Liebermans was newsworthy, so he called Washington Post columnist Lloyd Grove with the scoop.

After Orlando, Henner and her family were in the Tampa Bay area, where she performed her Annie Oakley role at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.

Henner, best known the part she played on the TV sitcom Taxi, named her Joey for her late father, Joseph Henner. Unlike the senator, who is Jewish, Joey is Catholic.

Before the curtain went up Sunday afternoon, the animated Joey was giving a preperformance rundown of the show to California playmates Ben and Aaron DeToledo, who came to the Tampa Bay area for a long weekend from Los Angeles with their mom, Alyce.

In the princess' court

Internationally known handbag designer Lana Marks (whose home base is Palm Beach) is taking exception to what's being said about her good friend the late Princess Diana. Marks, who has never spoken about the princess, is talking "because I cannot bear scoundrel Patrick Jephson, the private secretary, she trusted, saying terrible things about her. Betraying her for money. It's disgusting. He's disgusting. I must correct his errors," says Marks.

Jephson has been in the United States touting his tell-all book, Shadows of A Princess: An Intimate Account by Her Private Secretary, which was released Oct. 9.

"I'm married 25 years to a psychologist. I know Diana was not suffering borderline personality disorder. That's a severely disturbed person. A country girl madly in love with Charles, she was only severely unhappy," says Marks.

Marks, who was born and raised in South Africa, met the princess through Lucia Flecha diLema, wife of Brazil's ambassador in Washington.

The two became close friends. "Her death was devastating to me. One week before she and I were taking a trip to Milan. All was arranged. The Four Seasons, then La Scala and Lake Como. Suddenly, my father died and I had to leave for South Africa. With that time free, Diana went with Dodi."

Marks says, "Dodi was strictly a summer romance. There were only two men in her life, William and Harry.

"Diana was warm and loving," Marks says. "She was not neurotic. She was hurting. And Patrick Jephson is a rogue and rascal."

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