Sarah Boone

Sarah Boone (1832–1904) was an African American inventor. On April 26, 1892, she obtained United States patent number 473,563 for her improvements to the ironing board. Boone's ironing board was designed to improve the quality of ironing the sleeves and bodies of women's garments. The ironing board was very narrow, curved, and made of wood. The shape and structure allowed it to fit a sleeve and it was reversible, so one could iron both sides of the sleeve. 
Judy Reed received a patent just eight years prior, and is regarded as the first African American woman to attain one. Along with Miriam Benjamin, Ellen Eglin, and Sarah Goode, Boone was a pioneering African American women inventor who developed new technology for the home.
Personal life.
Sarah Marshall was born in Craven County, North Carolina, near the town of New Bern, in 1832. Along with her three siblings, she was born into slavery and prevented from formal education. Sarah was educated by her grandfather at home. On November 25, 1847, she married James Boone (or Boon) in New Bern; they had eight children. She was freed from involuntary servitude after marrying James Boone; the circumstances of this are unknown.
The Boone family left North Carolina for New Haven, Connecticut, before the outbreak of the American Civil War. They settled into a house at 30 Winter Street. Sarah Boone worked as a dressmaker and belonged to the Dixwell Avenue Congregational Church.
Sarah Marshall Boone died in 1904 and is buried in a family plot in Evergreen Cemetery in New Haven.