 After all, women only had the right to vote for about a decade at the time. But a series of detective novels for young people featured a female character, Nancy Drew, who despite her young age, solved mystery after mystery. And despite her true identity being a secret for more than 50 years, the original author of the series was Ladora, Iowa native Mildred Wirt Benson, who was born Mildred Augustine on July 5, 1905.