Blanche Douglass Leathers was born in 1860. She was the first woman master and a steamboat captain on the Mississippi River in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was the daughter-in-law of Captain T. P. Leathers, who was commander of the Natchez in its historic 1870 race with Robert E. Lee. Her nickname was "Angel of the Mississippi." She died in New Orleans on February 5, 1940 of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 79.
