Grandma Burright: The Queen of Harness Racing

Neva "Grandma" Burright was born on a race track in 1883, and her 57-year career as a harness racing driver spanned the county fair circuit to the early years of pari-mutuel harness racing after World War II. During the 1940s and 1950s, major newspapers from Boston to Honolulu reported on Grandma Burright's exploits as a harness racing driver. In 1943, she became the first woman to win a Grand Circuit race. In doing so, she defeated the legendary Sep Palin, "the aristocrat of drivers," who had the financial backing of automobile heiress Frances Dodge Johnson. During that Grand Circuit race in Delaware, Ohio, Grandma Burright and Luckyette, her bay gelding, also shocked the harness racing world by setting a record for women drivers over a half-mile track with a time of 2:04 3/4. In addition to Grandma Burright's victories on race tracks, general audience magazines such as Coronet, Esquire, Hit!, Life, and Look magazines featured her in articles. She also appeared before millions on national television in 1954 and stumped the panelists on What's My Line? In Grandma Burright: The Queen of Harness Racing, Kevin Groenhagen explores Grandma Burright's legacy as a wife, mother, grandmother, and, of course, as a harness racing driver. He examines how a diminutive woman of modest means overcame numerous tragedies (the death of a husband, two grandsons, and two sons, all within 12 years) to become known as "The Queen of Harness Racing."