Our Inspiration

Caroline and Ora Smith

Caroline Smith was born on December 18, 1924, in Chicago, just before Christmas. Her parents were Liberty and Lucille Licata, both of whom were born in Sicily. Caroline had three brothers, and she was the only girl. Caroline was a gifted student who was twice double-promoted, and so she graduated high school at the age of sixteen, even though she attended all four years of high school. After high school, each of her three brothers went to college. Caroline, the smartest of them all, did not attend college – and it was not even discussed because women at that time did not attend college. Caroline, instead, went to work as an office worker at the famed Spiegel headquarters at 1038 W. 35th St. in Chicago. Every day, she took several buses to work, leaving early in the morning and returning in the evening. Caroline worked at Spiegel for 20 years until she became pregnant. Again, it was not discussed and just assumed that because she was pregnant that she would no longer work. So, Caroline ended her career outside the home when she became a mother, despite her 20 years of service. Caroline threw herself into being a mother, and, as a very social person, has many friends and held leadership positions in some of her community groups as the result of her talents, diplomacy and intelligence. Caroline has two daughters, Mary and Pamela, and she strongly supports girls entering the STEM fields as her daughter, Mary, majored in mathematics and computer science.

Ora Mae Pallone was Native American and born in 1905 in Westville, Oklahoma. She grew up in a family with sixteen children, only ten of whom Ora Mae Pallonewas Native American and born in 1905 in Westville, Oklahoma – a little town near the Oklahoma-Arkansas border. Her father signed her up on the Dawes Rolls. Ora grew up in a farm during a time when people worked on the farm all day long. She used to regale her grandchildren with stories of walking miles to school with her lunch pail, and trading her low-brow homemade biscuits with the more high-brow white bread, or as Ora called it, “light bread.” Ora brimmed over with strength, determination, and perseverance; however, she grew up in a time when she was expected to just go to school through eighth grade. But it never stopped her. Ora grew up in a family of sixteen children, only ten of whom lived above the age of three because of a lack of quality health care. Today, on the land where Ora was born, there is still a small cemetery with several unmarked graves. Surely, the graves of six of Ora’s brothers and sisters. It is unknown what a difference they would have made in the world if they lived to be adults. But, they were not given that opportunity. In honor of Ora’s memory and determination – and even stubbornness – this foundation will help train Native American girls in STEM, including the medical professions.lived above the age of three, and she only graduated from eighth grade.