Women Enjoy Pipes, Too
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Fred Brown
- Oct 1, 2025
- 4 min read
It has been a few moons since the thought of women pipe smokers popped up in Pundit’s vision. But a recent piece in SmokingPipes.com caught my eye.
My grandmother, who lived deep in the heart of South Georgia peanut land, not only smoked a corncob pipe, but she also dipped snuff. She was a small woman with the stamina of a mule and would work you into exhaustion.
I recall the tiny, round tin of Tops Snuff Maudie carried with her, which was, by the way, the same apron pocket in which she once stuffed a coral snake. She said she thought it was a pretty colored worm—until she showed it to a visiting uncle.
“Red on the head, you’re dead,” he said and immediately dispatched the pretty red-headed worm.
I recall her uncle telling us some time later that Maudie reached for her corncob pipe to think over the red on the head part.
Normally, she left the corncob primarily for the evenings on the front porch in her rocking chair. I do not know what tobacco she smoked in the cob. Probably something like Sir Walter Raleigh—or some other light burley.
My grandmother was the first woman I ever encountered who smoked a pipe. Nobody among the family or friends ever questioned her about her pipe smoking, as that would not have gone over well.
She was the kind of woman who refused electricity when the Rural Electrification Administration, a New Deal agency to bring electricity to rural sections of the nation, came through red dirt backroads to turn on the lights. In her words, “if they can cut it on, they can cut it off.”
As for well-known women pipe smokers, let’s begin with Kayla Ivan’s excellent history in Pipe Line, featuring Rachel Jackson, wife of our seventh president, Andrew Jackson, and the military hero at the Battle of New Orleans.
In this battle against the British, Tennessee earned the state’s nickname, the “Volunteer State.” Jackson called on Tennesseans to join him in New Orleans to take on the British once more in the battle known as the War of 1812. And they did in droves.
Rachel, a frontier woman, smoked a pipe pretty much all her life. Andrew did not mind, because he often smoked a pipe with Rachel.
She preferred her long-stem clay and corncob pipes.
Rachel Jackson was born in Virginia, June 15, 1767, and died Dec. 22, 1828, a few months before Andrew Jackson was sworn in as the seventh president of the United States. They were married for 35 years.
Now for more women pipe smokers of the past:
Dorothea (Dolley) Payne Todd Madison. Born May 20, 1768, and died July 12, 1849.
She was the wife of President James Madison. Dolley was born in a Quaker community in what is today known as Guilford County, N.C. During the War of 1812, as British troops invaded Washington, she remained in the White House until she could ensure the rescue of important artifacts, including a portrait of George Washington.
History recounts that Dolley preferred snuff but often smoked a pipe. It’s not readily known what kind of pipe or her tobacco preference.
Margaret Taylor, wife of President Zachry Taylor, 12thU.S. president, was born Sept. 21, 1788, in Calvert County, Md., and died Aug.14, 1852, in Pascagoula, Miss. She is buried in the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery.
And for a more modern woman pipe smoker:
Millicent Fenwick, Republican Congresswoman from New Jersey, was born Feb. 25, 1910, in New York, and died Sept. 16, 1992, at Bernardsville, N.J.
She was a four-term congresswoman from 1975 to 1983. It is reported in her bio that when her doctor told her to stop smoking cigarettes, she began smoking a pipe.
Now for some parting thoughts from the Pundit:
As fall begins its colorful march, it triggers unique memories. In the past, fall weather meant I changed my blend preferences, generally switching from heavier Orientals, Virginias, Perique, and Latakia to a more relaxed and sweeter Aromatic blend.
I know for diehard heavy hitters, adding fruity vanilla flavors to some Burley or Virginia is akin to sacrilege.
Now, in my early dotage, I have changed again. I miss the old McClellan Virginia 5100. So, I have switched to a similar blend of Cornel & Diehl’s Virginias, especially some of the Old Belt red Virginia blends.
To my tastes, the C&D red ribbons are not quite the same as 5100, but close enough for me now. Though, in my humble opinion, I do not believe there will ever be another 5100.
One more thought: My pipes have become as precious to me as my love for Shakespeare.
So, I leave you with this quote from the Bard:
…This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man…
– William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3.
Written by Fred Brown
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