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Gail Beaton - Women's History Month - presents Sarah Platt Decker (Chautauqua)

Event Type:

Adults, Author, Class

Age Group:

Teen, Adult, Senior
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Event Details

Kick off Women's History Month - 

Author and Colorado women's history historian Gail Beaton will give an hour long Chautauqua presentation, "Sarah Platt Decker and Colorado's Women's Clubs." Gail will also have copies of her book(s) available for purchase.

Gail M. Beaton is a retired public school teacher and former community college instructor, historian, and author. Like many in Colorado Women: A History, Gail was born elsewhere (western Massachusetts in her case), moved with her family to the Midwest (Illinois) for her father's job, and then to Colorado where she has happily resided ever since. Native American women hauled their family's possessions on a travois. New Mexican women used carts and wagons to settle in Mexico's northern province. Anglo women moved their goods in Conestoga wagons and stage coaches. Gail is proud to say that her family's belongings traveled westward on the Mayflower – the green and gold trucks of the Mayflower Moving Company, that is. 

Gail earned her B.A. in education from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She began her teaching career in Kiowa, Colorado, before working as a middle school and high school teacher and coach in the Denver metro area. Along the way, she earned master's degrees in United States History and Public History from the University of Colorado at Denver. After retiring from public school teaching in 2005, Gail taught at Arapahoe Community College and the Community College of Denver. Her first thesis was published by History Colorado as a monograph. Gail regularly presents her “Gail Murphy: Colorado's “Rosie the Riveter” character and portrays Sarah Platt Decker to a variety of audiences in the state. Her first book, Colorado Women: A History, published by University Press of Colorado, was a finalist for the 2013 Colorado Book Awards and the WILLA Literary Award from Women Writing the West. Her latest manuscript on Colorado women in World War II has a anticipated publication date of October 2020. She is currently a member of the Advisory Committee for the Center for Colorado Women's History at the Byers-Evans House Museum in Denver.