The Women Who Conquered Whooping Cough

In the midst of the Depression and on a shoestring budget, two female scientists in Grand Rapids created one of the first whooping cough vaccines, with help from local parents, doctors, business leaders and schools.

“Pearl Kendrick and Grace Eldering worked on their own time and with a tiny budget and tested the vaccine on themselves. At night, they parked their car on a hill so if they needed to rush out to pick up a cough sample from a sick child, they only had to roll the car into gear.”

The headline specifies two women, but the article mentions a third, Loney Clinton Gordon, who helped make the vaccine more effective.