She never skied until training for her trek to the North Pole.
Barbara Hillary was the first African American woman to reach both the North and South Poles. The nurse and community activist survived lung cancer at the age of 67. Five years later, after a trip to Canada to photograph polar bears, she learned that a black woman had never reached the North Pole. She made it her mission, learning to ski and getting in shape with a personal trainer. In April 2007, at the age of 75, Hillary skied her way to the North Pole. In 2011 she became the first black woman to reach the South Pole. Earlier this year at the age of 87, she traveled to Mongolia where she met with many different rural people to learn their culture and bring awareness to global warming.
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Died: Sunday, November 24, 2019 (Who else died on November 24?)
Details of death: Her death at the age of 88 was announced on her official Twitter page and confirmed by her friend Deborah Bogosian to 1010 WINS radio in New York City.
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What she felt when she reached the North Pole: “If you could combine all the positive emotions into one ball, that’s what I felt.” —Video interview with AOL
What they said about her: “Everything about her was fascinating, convention-breaking, and confounding. Her record-setting treks, her defeat over cancer, her arduous fight to get her house back after Hurricane Sandy. Her years as a nurse, her gigs as a taxi driver and in sundry other jobs that gave her more than a few stories to tell. Her appreciation for archery, guns and knives, big trucks and big dogs. The roses and miraculous tomatoes she grew.”
“She died in the season of 24-hour sunlight at the South Pole.” —Her friend Deborah Bogosian told 1010 WINS radio in New York City
Interview with Barbara Hillary:
Full obituary: 1010 WINS Radio
Related lives:
Matthew Henson: First Man at the North Pole?
Jerrie Cobb (1931–2019), NASA’s first female astronaut candidate
Anna Mae Hayes (1920–2018), first female General in the U.S. military
