A Century of Women's Progress, Viewed Through the Life of My Mother

BY MARK CHESNUT

100 years ago today, a woman named Eunice Clayton was born in Louisville, Kentucky. She passed away in 2016, but this century-mark milestone is a perfect time to look back at a life that reflected the evolution of women’s roles and expectations over the past century. (You can view the Instagram Reel that showcases key moments in her life here.)

Eunice, by the way, happened to be my mother. She was also the most important person in my memoir, Prepare for Departure: Notes on a Single Mother, Misfit Son, Inevitable Mortality and the Enduring Allure of Frequent Flyer Miles. 

Eunice New Clayton was born in 1925 as the middle child in a middle-class family. After graduating from Shawnee High School, she enrolled at the University of Louisville — but left after a year, at 19, to marry my father, John J. Chesnut. Like so many women of her generation, her husband’s education and career took precedence. Their journey took them from Atlanta to Michigan for his studies — and, finally, to Brockport, New York, where he became a professor at SUNY Brockport. That’s where my sister Glynn and I were born.

But the traditional, nuclear family structure was about to undergo big changes. 

When my father died from lunch cancer in 1969, my mother made life-changing decisions, taking steps that hadn’t been possible before.

She went back to school, earning both her undergraduate and graduate degrees.

She ran for local political office — twice (as a Democrat in a very Republican town, she didn’t win, but the experience mattered more than the outcome).

She survived breast cancer.

She volunteered at numerous organizations.

And she found what became her favorite professional role: historian at the Western Monroe Historical Society, based at Brockport’s landmark Morgan-Manning House. For 37 years, she organized events, unearthed forgotten stories and wrote multiple local history books.

She did all this while still raising me — her youngest child — on her own. (My sister, whose birthday happens to be today too, had already started her own family by then.)

My mother’s life is a small but vivid example of how women’s opportunities and expectations evolved across the decades. She faced challenges, yet kept steering her life in new directions that had once been closed to her. She embraced change and quietly built a life she loved. She also encouraged me to follow my passions — always making sure I had drawing paper and a typewriter. She's the one who first gave me the travel bug, too.  She laid the groundwork for me to become a travel writer, without even knowing it.

I once asked how she managed so much while juggling work, study and a sometimes-difficult son (me). Her answer was perfectly her:
“You just do what you have to do.”

Eunice Clayton Chesnut set an example — for me and for anyone who believes in perseverance, curiosity and grace under pressure. She was progressive, open-minded and accepting of diversity in people and religious and political beliefs, And her sense of humor was legendary — even at her own father’s funeral, where her sharp wit scandalized a pushy minister!

That humorous encounter is just one scene from Eunice’s life story. I dig deeper in in my memoir, Prepare for Departure: Notes on a Single Mother, a Misfit Son, Inevitable Mortality, and the Enduring Allure of Frequent Flyer Miles.

My mother died in 2016 in New York City. I still miss her, of course, but I take comfort in remembering how much she accomplished — and how fully she lived. These images capture just a few moments from her remarkable life. Like so many people, she has a story worth sharing.