History alive: Nellie Bly tells her story at Schaumburg Library

Nellie Bly, a pioneer American woman journalist, told her story to a crowd at the Schaumburg Township District Library. Making history come alive on the first day of summer was Lynn Rymarz, story teller and author.

Rymarz, clad in vintage 20th century clothing, enchanted the audience for more than an hour by relating how and why "she" got into journalism and how "she" convinced editors to allow her to do undercover investigative reporting at a time when the few women who worked for newspapers were relegated to writing articles on tea parties and weddings.

Nellie Bly is just one of almost 40 inspiring women whom Rymarz portrays. The list includes such well-known women as Mary Todd Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, Julia Child and Hedy Lamarr, as well as lesser known figures such as artist Lila Cabot Perry, first-lady Edith Wilson, and Eliza Dibble Sawtell, a traveler on the Oregon Trail.

Each of Rymarz' one-woman shows is the result of extensive study. Rymarz said that her research of Bly, for example, included reading several biographies, as well as the books Bly (whose real name was Elizabeth Cochran Seaman) wrote about her adventures: Ten Days in a Madhouse and Around the World in Seventy-Two Days. Rymarz also hunted down copies of all the articles Bly had published over the years.

The in-person and online audiences at the Schaumburg library performance were extensive. A number of those attending were members of the Schaumburg chapter of P.E.O., an international non-profit women's organization that provides educational opportunities for female students (www.peointernational.org).

Rymarz is an active member of the organization. At one of the local P.E.O. chapter's recent programs celebrating the founding of P.E.O., she portrayed Franc Roads Elliot, one of the seven founders of P.E.O., a role she has also enacted in the past at an international P.E.O. convention.

More information on Rymarz can be found at lynnrymarz.com.