Film on Route 66 women sparks gratitude

Several women who discussed a documentary film screening Sunday about women on Route 66 indicated they were grateful for these women's trailblazing work many year before.

Katrina Parks, director of "Route 66: The Untold Story of Women of the Mother Road," described her film as a "public history project" and shepherded the discussion between viewings of segments at the Odeon Theatre in downtown Tucumcari.

The full film can be streamed at tubitv.com and Vimeo. More information can be found at route66women.com.

Parks said an earlier film she directed, "The Harvey Girls: Opportunity Bound," about the women who worked in Harvey Houses at railroad stops throughout the West and Southwest, led her to her Route 66 documentary.

The documentary details how women - including some who were racial minorities - overcame sexism and discrimination during Route 66's early days to near the current era.

Melissa Beasley-Lee, president of the New Mexico Route 66 Association, recalled how she took a solo road trip on Route 66 in 2006 and was one of the few to do so at the time.

"Women before me gave me the right to go by myself and get on the road," she said. "I've met so many wonderful women and heard their stories."

Becky Willingham Johnson, who was born in Amarillo and lives in the Route 66 town of Adrian, Texas, noted those women helped blaze the trail so other women could enter vocational fields that traditionally were for men.

"These were areas I never thought of until my own children were doing it," she said.

One of the film's segments was about Fabiola Cabeza de Baca, a home extension agent who traveled all over New Mexico. De Baca was badly injured and lost a leg when a train struck her car during her travels. She was fitted with a wooden leg and got back behind the wheel to continue her duties.

Tomas Jaehn, retired director for the Center of the Southwest Research, said de Baca played a key role on preserving New Mexico traditions and was influential worldwide.

Willingham Johnson said home extension agents long have played a big role in influencing women.

"I hope y'all show that (segment) to 4-H members," she said.

Excepts from the film included two women with links to Quay County. Michael Wallis, author of the best-selling book "Route 66: The Mother Road," and his wife Suzanne reminisced about Lillian Redman, longtime owner of the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari.

Nancy Mueller, a recent previous co-owner of the motel, said in the film she was skeptical about ghosts until she owned the Blue Swallow. Mueller explained they inexplicably found bobby pins on the property. Redman wore those pins in her hair before she died in 1999.

"Her spirit is here," Mueller said.

The film also contained an interview with Roxann Travis, resident of the ghost town of Glenrio.

Travis showed a family picture with her late husband, who was slain in 1976 during an apparent robbery at an Adrian gas station he managed. Travis said she made her husband's shirts, and he was buried in the one shown in the photo.

Other segments included:

- An interview with Katherine Augustine, a Laguna woman who attended one of the now-notorious Indian boarding schools.

"They were trying to make you ashamed to be an Indian," she said of her experience at the Albuquerque school.

- A history of Mr. Powdrell's BBQ in Albuquerque, founded by a Black couple who left the South during the Jim Crow era;

- A history of Alberta Northcutt Ellis, a Black woman who founded and operated Alberta's Hotel in Springfield, Missouri;

- An interview with Luz Delgadillo Moore, who was part of an 11-member, all-Hispanic family dance band based in Seligman, Arizona.