The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep: The Friday Quiz: The Last Shall Be First, In a Manner of Speaking

No time for preambles, introductions, forewords, overviews, summaries, or suchlike. Today’s weak coffee for the tired mind:

She was the first American citizen elevated to the position of honor she eventually achieved. The youngest of thirteen children born to a family in Lombardy in 1850 was trained as a teacher emigrated to the U.S. in 1889. She was naturalized as a American citizen in 1909. She died of malaria in 1917. By what name is she popularly known?

First correct answer posted to comments wins a shoebox full of perfectly good printer cartridges from a variety of printers that broke before the ink supply ran out. Suitable for hucking at your rivals for tribal or village power after an unspecified apocalypse in which the conveniences of 21st century life all become meaningless detritus. No Googling or doing anything to sabotage our decadent and wasteful culture just because you think that somehow getting more quickly to the dystopic hell referred to above would in the end mean that our long, slow journey to a more chastened and healthy human society could begin right away. Most of us just aren’t ready for that, OK? One guess per comment, but totally comment a lot.

Comments

I don't even know where Lombardy is (and, wombat, as an American, you may want to keep a low profile regarding your competency at world geography).

I think this is what's-her-face.

Posted by: boxjam | January 18, 2008 12:26 PM

Senorita Montessori?

Posted by: bootsy3000 | January 18, 2008 01:17 PM

Florence Nightingale?

Posted by: gavinedwards | January 18, 2008 01:19 PM

Marie Curie (but of course she was from Poland, not Lombardy)

Posted by: art | January 18, 2008 03:58 PM

Edna Ferber?

Posted by: shananan | January 18, 2008 04:03 PM

Saki?

Posted by: art | January 18, 2008 04:25 PM

The Queen of Sheba?

Posted by: gavinedwards | January 18, 2008 05:00 PM

Nope.

Lombardy is in the northern bit of Italy.

Posted by: BT | January 18, 2008 05:00 PM

Clara Bow?

Posted by: boxjam | January 18, 2008 05:56 PM

Willa Cather?

Posted by: shananan | January 18, 2008 06:42 PM

Betty Crocker?

Posted by: shananan | January 18, 2008 06:46 PM

Saint somebody

Posted by: herbivorous | January 19, 2008 07:24 PM

Well, yes -- was the first U.S. citizen to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. But she's not generally known by "Saint" X -- but rather by another honorific, followed by her surname.

Said surname, incidentally, also got attached to public works and such, by way of memorial.

Posted by: BT | January 19, 2008 10:15 PM

Is it Cabrini?

Posted by: bootsy3000 | January 20, 2008 08:51 AM

Seton?

Posted by: shananan | January 20, 2008 11:37 PM

Sister Sledge

Posted by: art | January 21, 2008 06:29 AM

"Big Mama" Thornton

Posted by: boxjam | January 21, 2008 11:04 AM

Sister Christian?

Posted by: gavinedwards | January 21, 2008 01:34 PM

Gina Immaculate Heart?

Posted by: gavinedwards | January 21, 2008 01:46 PM

Teresa Municipal Hospital?

Posted by: gavinedwards | January 21, 2008 04:49 PM

Sorry for the delay here in getting back on. Bootsy gets it. "Mother" Cabrini is the answer, which is sad as "Sister Sledge" would have been much, much funnier.

Posted by: BT | January 21, 2008 10:54 PM

The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep

The Wombat File is a Delaying Tactic that May Save Your Life

The Friday Quiz: The Last Shall Be First, In a Manner of Speaking

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