Name Blanche Leathers | Died 1940 | |
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Blanche Douglass Leathers (1860-1940) was the first woman master and a steamboat captain on the Mississippi River in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her nicknames include "the little captain" and "the angel of the Mississippi".
Leathers was born in Tensas Parish, Louisiana. Her father was a cotton planter. She later became the daughter-in-law of Captain T. P. Leathers, who was commander of the riverboat Natchez in its historic 1870 race with Robert E. Lee. After her wedding, Leathers and her husband took up residence on the boat. Before the birth of Leathers' daughter, Jefferson Davis, a passenger on the Natchez, gave her a bottle of champagne.
In 1894, Leathers began her historic voyage as the first woman steamboat captain on the Mississippi. As the Natchez left New Orleans, tugs, ferries and freighters whistled in salute. Newspaper reporters interviewed her and she gave out autographs.
Leathers died in New Orleans on February 5, 1940 of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 79.