

Valerie DeBenedette
Joined: Oct 7, 2015
Valerie DeBenedette is a freelance writer who lives in New York State with a small tan dog and a big red cat. She most often writes about health and medicine and knits quite frequently.




Lady Mary Wortley Montagu—British aristocrat, feminist, and writer—was largely responsible for the adoption of inoculation against smallpox in England.
According to legend, Guinefort protected a baby he was later unjustly accused of murdering.
If you're hitting a boardwalk or beach, you'd better know where the nearest taffy shop is.
Patrick isn't the only saint celebrated on March 17.
Think Robin Williams at his fastest and Jon Stewart at his most political, and you have Dan Rice.
In the 1600s, the family who invented forceps for use in childbirth surrounded them in secrecy.
She made hundreds of movies and owned and operated her own studio. So why has she been all but ignored?
Fanny Crosby—poet, public speaker, activist—wrote so many hymns that publishers had to give her dozens of pseudonyms.
Sybil Ludington's ride through the New York countryside to rouse the troops was longer and more difficult than Paul Revere's.
The American muralist's 127th birthday is today!
The biggest fight of Annie Oakley’s life was not in the Old West—it was in courtrooms across the country.