Zaneis was the first woman to lead a state college or university in the United States when she became president of Southeastern Oklahoma State Teachers College. 1937 Grace Hudowalski was the ninth person and first woman to climb all 46 of the Adirondack High Peaks. 1938 Pearl S. Buck was the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. 1939 Molly Kool was North America's first registered female sea captain or ship master. 1940s 1940s Lois Fegan Farrell was the first female reporter to cover a professional hockey team in America. 1942 Anna Leah Fox was the first woman to receive the Purple Heart, which she received for being wounded in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Mildred H. McAfee was the first woman commissioned in the U.S. Naval Reserve and the first woman to receive the Navy Distinguished Service Medal 1943 Nellie Neilson was the first woman to serve as president of the American Historical Association. Edith Ellen Greenwood was the first woman to receive the Soldier's Medal. 1944 Cordelia E Cook was the first woman to receive both the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart. Ann Baumgartner was the first woman to fly a jet aircraft, the Bell YP-59A on October 14, 1944. 1946 Frances Xavier Cabrini was the first American canonized by the Roman Catholic church as a saint. 1947 Gerty Cori was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine; she shared the prize with Carl Ferdinand Cori and Bernardo Alberto Houssay. Although born in Prague, Gerty Cori is considered the first American woman to win a Nobel Prize in medicine. She had become a U.S. citizen in 1928. 1948 Esther McGowin Blake was the first woman in the U.S. Air Force. She enlisted in the first minute of the first hour of the first day regular Air Force duty was authorized for women on July 8th, 1948. 1949 Georgia Neese Clark Gray was the first woman Treasurer of the United States; she served under President Harry Truman. Eugenie Anderson became the first woman ever to serve as a chief of mission at the ambassador rank, and as such the first woman to serve as United States Ambassador to Denmark; she served under President Harry S. Truman. Shirley Dinsdale was the first recipient of the Emmy Award. Sara Christian was the first woman to compete in a major-league stock car