Celebrate Women's History Month with the release of two remarkable women involved in a scandal that rocked Green Bay.

At the turn of Green Bay's nineteenth century, Mary Cenefelt, an illiterate maid, and Mollie Bertles, a college-educated socialite, fell victim to the physical violence and mental abuse of the city's celebrated surgeon, Dr. John R. Minahan. The physician was the most influential member of his brilliant family that dominated Green Bay's professional, business, political, and social arenas from 1892 to 1954. Dr. Minahan's fortune built a stadium, science center, and six-story building--all named for him--while history lost, or perhaps erased, Mary's and Mollie's corageous stories. Until now.

We invite you to join us as author Lynda Drews shares how she excavated Mary's and Mollie's voices and the Minahan family's fascinating history from the University of Wisconsin-Gren Bay archival records to write her newly released book, The Maid and the Socialite: The Brave Women Behind the Scandalous Minahan Trials. You will also meet Door County residet Beverly Hart Brnson, who was married to a descendant of Mollie's best girlfriend and provided photos and documents to enrich the story's narrative. A powerpoint presentation and readings will be included in the talk and a book signing will be provided at its conclusion.

Lynda Drews is the author of four books, including her Green Bay true crime memoir Run at Destruction: A True Fatal Love Triangle. She and her husband Jim have lived in Green Bay since 1974, eighteen years in the Astor Historic District where The Maid and the Socialite takes place. She and her husband also spend nearly every weekend in Fish Creek at their Half Mile Bridge condo.