Honoring the Chiropractic Profession’s Heroines (Pt. 1)

As a longtime student of chiropractic history, I have very much admired the outstanding work performed by women doctors of chiropractic. In 2021, I began an extensive effort to research and recognize the “best of the best” female DCs in the following six important categories:

• Licensure
• Pediatrics
• Legal
• Education
• Veterans
• Fervor

The timing of this article is interesting. I started writing this column on March 6, 2025, which was the day President Donald J. Trump officially proclaimed March as Women’s History Month. Moreover, March 8, 2025 was International Women’s Day. Based on those two events, I committed to submitting the first column for publication before the end of March.

After you read about the six charter inductees, I believe you may mumble more than once, I didn’t know that. If that happens, I will have accomplished my goal.

For instance, it is a little-known fact that during World War I and World War II, many female DCs kept the offices open while their DC husbands were fighting in Europe. I cannot imagine how stressful it must have been to treat patients, care for their children and all the time worry about the safety of their husbands!

After completing my research, I obtained a “Hall of Honor” website to recognize these six inductees. Brief biographies for each of these chiropractic warriors will be published in this column in a series.

In this first column, please enjoy reading about Kansas’ Dr. Anna Mae Foy, the undisputed pioneer matriarch of this profession, who in 1913 got the first chiropractic law in the world passed. Truly, and whether they knew it not, the other five great chiropractic heroines later followed in Dr. Foy’s historic footprints.

Licensure: Dr. Anna Mae Foy

Anna Mae Richardson was born on Oct. 10, 1874 in Ladore, Kansas to William Thomas Richardson (1833-1910) and Rebecca Elizabeth Stuart (1853-1926). She graduated from Cedarville (Kan.) High School and from Central Normal College in Great Bend, Kan. in June 1891. She married Andrew C. Foy on May 23, 1893, and both received their chiropractic degrees from Ratledge System of Chiropractic Schools in Arkansas City, Kan.

Dr. Anna Foy’s Doctor of Chiropractic degree was awarded on June 30, 1910 and within seven months she had moved to Topeka, established a practice and helped found the Kansas Chiropractic Association. Dr. Foy practiced 40 years in the shadow of the Kansas Capitol at 718 Kansas Avenue with her sister, Dr. Madge Richardson Gabriel, and her brother-in-law, Dr. John H. Gabriel.

• Dr. Foy was one of the eight Kansas doctors and Dr. B. J. Palmer who founded the Kansas Chiropractic Association (KCA) on Jan. 28, 1911. She served as the first KCA secretary (1911-13) and was the original KCA lobbyist, successful in securing the first chiropractic licensing law in the world in 1913. Overall, she served 21 years on the KCA Legislative Committee.
• Dr. Foy was elected 1911 “KCA Doctor of the Year” by the KCA Board of Directors in 1997.
• Dr. Foy received Kansas chiropractic license #1 issued under the first licensing law in 1915. A color copy of that first license issued under the first chiropractic licensing law in the world is prominently displayed at the KCA office in Topeka.
• Dr. Foy offered to be appointed to the first examining committee in 1913, even though it was an admission that she had been practicing chiropractic before the law was passed and could have subjected her to criminal prosecution.
• Dr. Foy was appointed by Kansas Governor Capper to serve on the first Kansas Board of Chiropractic Examiners in 1915. She served 27 years on the examining board (12 years as president and 15 years as secretary-treasurer), which is the longest length of service on that board.
• Dr. Foy founded the Kansas School of Chiropractic on Sept. 7, 1914 and served as president until 1921.
• Dr. Foy was a founding member and served as first vice president of the International Congress of Chiropractic Examining Boards (1926).
• The KCA Foy-Wright Healing Arts Board Service Award is named in honor of Dr. Foy and Dr. Rex Wright (1996).

Closing Observations

The most impressive fact to me is that after almost singlehandedly passing the first chiropractic licensing law in the world, she had actually only begun. Dr. Foy then served 27 years on the Kansas Board of Chiropractic Examiners, with 12 of those years as president and 15 as secretary-treasurer.

In the 1980s, I interviewed an elderly DC who was a child during Dr. Foy’s tenure. He said (paraphrasing): “Dang right, I remember Dr. Foy because you could not miss her. She had flowing red hair, always beautifully dressed and her presence would almost suck all the oxygen out the room.”

After all her work on behalf of the profession, there is no doubt in my mind that Dr. Foy knew full well her place in chiropractic history¹ – so much so that she made sure that her 8x10 photo, her #1 Kansas chiropractic license, an 8X10 group photo of her and Dr. B.J. Palmer at the first conference of state examining boards in January 1919,² and other important documents were donated to the Kansas Historical Research Center in Topeka, where I finally located them in a secure vault decades later.

Author’s Note: Stay tuned. My next column will focus on the charter inductee in the pediatrics category. I am purposely not giving out the “Hall of Honor” website address yet because each of the inductees has earned her own solo announcement. Should you have any questions, comments or suggested future inductees, contact me by email at Doctor@JamesEdwards.com.

References

1. Edwards J. “Kansas Chiropractic History: From Cellar to Cyberspace.” Journal of the Association for the History of Chiropractic, December 2000.
2. Keating J, Liewer D. Protection, Regulation & Legitimacy: FCLB & the Story of Licensing in Chiropractic, Volume. 1. 2012, pp. 61, 81.