Who was Nellie Bly? (Part 1 of 3)

In her lifetime Nellie Bly would wear many hatsinvestigative journalist, wife and widow, patent inventor, progressive industrialist, war correspondent, crusading activist. But how was it a woman of little education, few connections, no position or wealth found her way so indelibly into the history books? And how did she accomplish such extraordinary things only considered fitting for men to do at a time when women didnt even have the power to vote? You only have to look at her formative years...