Rebecca Latimer Felton
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Rebecca Ann Latimer Felton (June 10, 1835–January 24, 1930) was an American writer, teacher, reformer, and briefly a politician who became the first woman to serve in the United States Senate, filling an appointment on November 21, 1922, and serving until the next day.
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Education, teaching, and marriage
Born Rebecca Ann Latimer in Decatur, Georgia, Felton attended common schools and graduated from the Madison Female College in 1852. She moved to Bartow County, Georgia in 1854 where she taught school. She was a writer, lecturer, and reformer with a special interest in agriculture, women's suffrage, temperance, and less admirably, racial segregation.
Felton's husband, William Harrell Felton, was a Methodist minister with a similar interest in agriculture. She served as secretary to her husband when he was elected as an Independent Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving from March 4, 1875 to March 3, 1881. He also served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1884 to 1890, and as trustee from the state at large for the University of Georgia from 1886 to 1892. He died on September 24, 1909 at the age of 86, when Rebecca Felton was 64.
Senator
In 1922, Governor Thomas Hardwick was a candidate for the next general election to the Senate, when Senator Thomas E. Watson died prematurely. Seeking an appointee who would not be a competitor in the coming special election to fill the vacant seat, and a way to secure the vote of the new women voters alienated by his opposition to the 19th Amendment, Hardwick chose Felton to serve as Senator on October 3, 1922.
Congress was not expected to reconvene until after the election, so the chances were slim that Felton would be formally sworn in as Senator. However, Walter George won the special election despite Hardwick's ploy. Rather than take his seat immediately when the Senate reconvened on November 21, 1922, George allowed Felton to be officially sworn in. Felton thus became the first woman seated in the Senate, and served until George took office on November 22, 1922, one day later.
Felton was the first woman to occupy a seat in the Senate, and only the fourth woman to serve in Congress, after elected Representatives Jeannette Rankin, Alice Mary Robertson, and Winnifred Sprague Mason Huck. Almost ten years later, on January 12, 1932, Hattie Caraway became the first female Senator elected to office. In addition, Felton holds the record for the shortest time in office of any Senator — twenty-four hours. She is also the oldest person to be sworn in as Senator, at 87 years of age. The oldest Senator ever, the 100-year-old Strom Thurmond, entered the Senate at the age of 51.
Final years
Felton was engaged as a writer and lecturer and resided in Cartersville, Georgia, until her death in Atlanta, Georgia. She was interred in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Cartersville.
Quotes
- "When the women of the country come in and sit with you, though there may be but very few in the next few years, I pledge you that you will get ability, you will get integrity of purpose, you will get exalted patriotism, and you will get unstinted usefulness." -- Address to the Senate, November 21, 1922
References
- This article incorporates facts obtained from the public domain Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. [1] (http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=F000069) [2] (http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=F000070) Retrieved March 1, 2005.
- U.S. Senate. First woman senator appointed (http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/First_Woman_Senator_Appointed.htm). Retrieved March 1, 2005.