Jeannette RANKIN, Congress, MT (1880-1973)

RANKIN Jeannette , a Representative from Montana; born near Missoula, Missoula County, Mont., June 11, 1880; attended the public schools and graduated from the University of Montana at Missoula in 1902; student at the School of Philanthropy, New York City, in 1908 and 1909; social worker in Seattle, Wash., in 1909; engaged in promoting the cause of woman suffrage in the state of Washington in 1910, in California in 1911, and in Montana 1912-1914; visited New Zealand in 1915 and worked as a seamstress in order to gain personal knowledge of social conditions; elected as a Republican to the Sixty-fifth Congress (March 4, 1917-March 4, 1919); was the first woman to be elected to the United States House of Representatives; did not seek renomination in 1918, but was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for Senator; was also an unsuccessful candidate on an independent ticket for election to the United States Senate; engaged in social work; elected to the Seventy-seventh Congress (January 3, 1941-January 3, 1943); was not a candidate for renomination in 1942 to the Seventy-eighth Congress; resumed lecturing and ranching; member, National Consumers League; field worker, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; member, National Council for Prevention of War; remained leader and lobbyist for peace and women's rights until her death in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif., May 18, 1973; cremated; ashes scattered on ocean, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif.

Bibliography

"Jeannette Rankin" in Women in Congress, 1917-2006. Prepared under the direction of the Committee on House Administration by the Office of History & Preservation, U.S. House of Representatives. Washington: Government Printing Office, 2006.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present