She graduated from
Buffalo Seminary in 1884. Thereafter, she became one of the first female reporters in Western New York State and wrote for
The Buffalo Evening News and then with
The Buffalo Commercial. De Forest also co-founded the
Buffalo Musical Foundation, thereby bringing the American Opera Company to Western New York. She also played a prominent role in the formation of the
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1919, she founded Zonta, "a service organization of executive women working to improve the legal, political, economic and professional status of women worldwide."
Zonta is a
Lakota Sioux Indian word that means "honest and trustworthy." In one of her early speeches, de Forest explained, "Zonta stands for the highest standards in the business and professional world ... seeks cooperation rather than competition and considers the
Golden Rule not only good ethics but good business". De Forest envisioned Zonta to become an international organization. In her own words, "This is the woman's age and in distant lands and foreign climes women of all nations are rallying to the call … Zonta is given the opportunity of uniting them into one great, glorious whole." De Forest's drama papers are in the collection of the
Buffalo History Museum. ==References==