Posted on Wed, Nov. 4, 2009
On this day in 1924, Nellie T. Ross of Wyoming was elected as the nation’s first female governor. She won the office after her husband, William Ross, died on Oct. 2, 1924. The Democratic Party then nominated Nellie Ross to run for governor in a special election the following month. William Ross, elected in 1922, had been facing his first reelection bid.
As governor, Ross continued her late husband’s policies, which called for tax cuts, government assistance for poor farmers and laws protecting children, working women and miners. Like her husband, she advocated strengthening Prohibition laws.
Ross narrowly lost her 1926 reelection bid, which she blamed on her support for Prohibition and her refusal to campaign for herself. She remained active in Democratic politics over the ensuing years, giving a seconding speech for Democratic presidential nominee Al Smith at the party’s 1928 convention.
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s election as president led to an unusual second career for Ross, when, on May 3, 1933, FDR appointed her as the first female director of the U.S. Mint. She served in that position for 20 years and retired in Washington. She died in 1977 at the age of 101. At the time of her death, she was the oldest ex-governor in the United States.
Source: http://governor.wy.gov
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