Tae Keller - She Persisted: Patsy Mink

She Persisted: MARIAN ANDERSON

She Persisted: VIRGINIA APGAR

She Persisted: NELLIE BLY

She Persisted: RUBY BRIDGES

She Persisted: CLAUDETTE COLVIN

She Persisted: ROSALIND FRANKLIN

She Persisted: TEMPLE GRANDIN

She Persisted: FLORENCE GRIFFITH JOYNER

She Persisted: HELEN KELLER

She Persisted: CORETTA SCOTT KING

She Persisted: CLARA LEMLICH

She Persisted: MAYA LIN

She Persisted: WANGARI MAATHAI

She Persisted: WILMA MANKILLER

She Persisted: PATSY MINK

She Persisted: SALLY RIDE

She Persisted: MARGARET CHASE SMITH

She Persisted: SONIA SOTOMAYOR

She Persisted: MARIA TALLCHIEF

She Persisted: DIANA TAURASI

She Persisted: HARRIET TUBMAN

She Persisted: OPRAH WINFREY

She Persisted: MALALA YOUSAFZAI

Patsy Matsu Takemoto was born in 1927 on the island of Maui, in Hawaii. Maui was a land of sunshine, white sand beaches, and warm trade winds. But though the island was beautiful, its people were going through a difficult time.

In 1898, the United States annexed Hawaii. This meant that the US government stole control of the islands from the Hawaiian people and declared Hawaii a US territory. This was a dark time for many Native Hawaiians, who lost their homeland to incoming mainland Americans.

Additionally, because Hawaii was just a territory and not yet a state, the US offered Hawaiis citizens very few protections or rights, and the people of Hawaii had little control over governing their own lives or what was happening in their communities.

At the time, the US government saw the islands as a place they could use for their own benefit, without thinking about the people who lived there. The government set up a military base on Oahu called Pearl Harbor and, through taxes, made money off the islands businessesespecially the booming business of growing sugar.

Like many people of Japanese descent in Hawaii, Patsy grew up on a sugar plantation. For most plantation workersmostly Native Hawaiians at first, and later, in Patsys time, Asian immigrantsthis was a difficult life of endless, grueling work in the fields.

But Patsys childhood was different. She was lucky. Many of the other kids her age had parents whod just arrived in Hawaii from Japan, but Patsys parents had grown up in Hawaii. Because of this, Patsys dad spoke English natively, so he was hired as a civil engineer for the plantation, instead of a field worker. This led to more money and less back-breaking labor for his family.

Patsy grew up in a comfortable cottage surrounded by palm trees, sugarcane, and dirt roads. Some days, she would play with the pigs, chickens, rabbits, and turkeys. Other days, she would spend time at the nearby beach, searching for seashells.

On the very best days, she would play with her brother, Eugene. Just a year older, he was Patsys best friend, and together they would run, explore, and venture into the nearby mountains to pick mushrooms or bamboo.

Although Patsy grew up in a time when girls were often expected to stay home while boys played outside, her family always treated her and her brother as equals. Eugene included her in football and baseball games, and her parents encouraged her to follow her dreams.

And Patsy was certainly a dreamer. It didnt take long before she found her first dream. When she was four, she woke up to a sharp pain in her stomach, and when her parents rushed her to the hospital, the family doctor realized she needed emergency surgery to remove her appendix. That must have been scary for four-year-old Patsy! But her doctor comforted her, and the surgery helped Patsy feel better.

From that point on, she looked up to her family physician. He had saved her, and perhaps even better, he had shown her that saving other people was