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Most successful people who want to give something back to their community settle for contributing money to a museum or joining the board of the town library. When Marge Schott decided to fulfill her civic duty, she invested in the local baseball team: the Cincinnati Reds. Schott, who had taken over her late husband's GM dealership, bought the club in 1984 for an estimated $11 million, and has become one of the game's highest profile owners. "It's really more than a 24-hour-a-day job," says Schott, 62. Nonetheless, she has managed to turn around the fortunes of the red-hot team, which lost $4 million the year before she came aboard. Attendance has jumped 85% during her tenure, to 2.4 million this season. An intrepid cost cutter, she canceled Riverfront Stadium fireworks displays, and signs all checks for the team herself. "Daddy always taught us it wasn't right to waste money," says the chain-smoking Schott. "When I see someone cheat for two bucks it makes me want to throw up." She was devastated by the conviction of former Reds manager Pete Rose for tax evasion, but it has not slowed her pace one whit.
Queen Latifah
Rap Artist
Rap music hasn't exactly been kind to women, portraying them mostly as malleable sex objects or manipulative money grubbers. But that hasn't stopped Queen Latifah, 20, from finding her voice amid a crowded field of sexist, street-smart men. The Newark-born singer-songwriter has been called the Aretha Franklin of rap for her creative fusing of reggae, soul and jazz. A professional rapper for five years, she sees herself as a role model for young people, and she's as committed to raising consciousness as she is to having fun. "I try to slip in a few lines about something serious. But I'm not a preacher," says Latifah, a.k.a. Dana Owens. As she chants in her hit song Latifah's Law, "BMWs and gold rope chains don't impress me, won't get you closer to the point you could undress me." The name Latifah, she notes, is Arabic for delicate and sensitive. As for calling herself Queen, "it has nothing to do with rank. I believe all black people came from a long line of kings and queens that they've never really known about." The title was simply Latifah's way of paying tribute to them.
Barbara Harris
Bishop