Harriet Burns working on the Birthday Ghost
Harriet Burns was the first woman to work at Walt Disney Imagineering, being a model maker and scenic designer.
She was originally selected to provide the face for the character that became Madame Leota, but her facial features were ultimately too small to project well onto a bust, and they tried again with Leota Toombs.[1]
In 2011, the Magic Kingdom's queue graveyard expansion would honor her with a tribute tombstone that applied her name to the female Opera Singer.