Ann Cooper Hewitt (1914-1956)

She was a great-granddaughter of Peter Cooper, founder of the Cooper Union in New York. When her father died in 1921, he left two-thirds of his $4-million estate to Ann and one-third to her mother, Maryon; however, if Ann died without an heir, her two shares would revert to her mother. When she was 21 in 1935 she was admitted to hospital in San Francisco for appendicitis. While she was under sedation, her mother - making use of the state's favorable views on Eugenics - persuaded and paid the surgeon to sterilize her "promiscuous" daughter on the grounds that Ann was "feeble minded." On discovering what her mother had done, Ann filed lawsuits against the hospital and her mother, but the case was unsuccessful as at the time, involuntary sterilization of the "feeble minded" was legal in California, and the California Supreme Court declined to reopen the case. Following "a lengthy, exhausting trial" in the civil courts, Ann agreed to drop the charges against the doctors and her mother for $150,000."