Michelle Knudsen - She Persisted: Nellie Bly

Nellie Bly spent her whole life doing things other people thought she couldnt. She spoke her mind in a time when womens voices often went unheard. She acted undercover to expose the truth about terrible injustices. And she performed amazing feats that made her one of Americas most famous and daring reporters.

Nelliethough she didnt have that name yetwas born on May 5, 1864, in a small town not far from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her given name was Elizabeth Jane Cochran, but hardly anyone called her that. Thanks to her mothers habit of dressing her in pink and white (instead of the dull gray and brown most young girls wore), Elizabeth soon became known as Pink.

Pink was a brown-haired girl who loved her family and chewing gum and horses. The town she was born in was called Cochrans Millsit had once been Pitts Mills, but the name was changed in honor of Pinks father, a successful property owner and mill operator who had been a local judge for five years. When Pink was five years old, her family moved to nearby Apollo, Pennsylvania. There she lived with her parents, three brothers, and one sister in a big house with enough land for a cow, a horse, and two dogs. She also had ten older half siblings from her fathers first marriage, which meant lots of half nieces, half nephews, and cousins to play with.

But soon something terrible happenedtwo months after Pinks sixth birthday, her beloved father unexpectedly died. He did not leave a will, and at that time husbands and wives did not automatically inherit each others land and property. In order to divide his estate among his wife and many children, all of the property was sold at auction. Pink, her mother, and her young siblings lost their beautiful home and most of their money.

Pinks mother remarried two and a half years later. Her new husband, whose name was Jack, was nothing like Pinks father. Jack was often drunk and violent. More than once, he even threatened Pinks mother with a loaded gun! In those days it was very unusual for a woman to sue her husband for divorce, but Pinks mother finally decided she could not stay married to Jack. When Pink was fourteen years old, she, her brother Albert, and several neighbors testified in court about her stepfathers actions. Her mother was granted the divorce.

During this time, Pink learned that it wasnt always safe to rely on others for support. Her mother had thought each of her husbands would take care of her, but that had not turned out to be true. Pink became determined to take care of herselfand her mother as well. Training for a career seemed the best way to do that. At age fifteen, Pink decided to go to school to become a teacher.

The Indiana State Normal School was only fifteen miles away from Apollo and considered one of the best schools of its kind. Normal schools were places where young people could learn to be teachers or to work in business. When Pink enrolled, she added a silent e to the end of her last name. Perhaps she thought Elizabeth J. Cochrane sounded more fancy and sophisticated. Pink was excited about school and wrote to her brother Charles to tell him all about her fourth-floor dorm room and her new roommate. She took classes in arithmetic, grammar, reading, writing, drawing, and spelling. She was looking forward to becoming a teacher.

But near the end of her first year at school, Pink discovered she would not be able to continue her education. Pink had a little money held in her name at the bank. When she first decided to go to school, the banker in charge of managing that money had told her she would be able to afford the full three years required to become a teacher. But now he said she did not have enough money for even one more year. Pink could not believe it.

Upset and disappointed, she dropped out before taking her first-year final exams. Later in her life, embarrassed about her familys trouble with money, Pink would say that she had to drop out because she was ill, and also claimed she went to school for two years instead of just one. But money had been the real reason, and now she would have to find another way to earn a living. She was not going to let this setback stop her from taking care of her mother and herself.