Tag Archives: Women’s History Month

Women’s History Month – Nancy Hall, first woman elected to an Arkansas Constitutional Office

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glass-hallNancy Pearl Johnson Hall was married to longtime Arkansas Secretary of State C. G. “Crip” Hall.  Following his death, Mrs. Hall was appointed to succeed him as Secretary of State.  With this appointment, she became the first woman to serve as a Constitutional Officer in Arkansas.  As an appointee to that office, she could not run for it in the following election.

Instead, in 1962, she was elected to be the 33rd Treasurer of the State of Arkansas.  She held that position from January 1963 until January 1981.  Her campaign slogan during each election was “I’ll Take Care of Your Money.” She somewhat reluctantly decided to forego another term and did not run for office in 1980.

When she left office in January 1981, she finished a career working for the state which had started in 1925.   She died on January 1, 1991 and was buried next to her husband.

 

Women’s History Month – Lucy Dixon, first woman on Little Rock Board of Directors

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Photo courtesy Little Rock School District

Photo courtesy Little Rock School District

First woman elected to the City of Little Rock Board of Directors:  Lucy Dixon.

Lucy Dixon was elected to the initial Little Rock Board of Directors in November 1957.  She previously had served for six years on the Little Rock School Board.

Mrs. Dixon is the only woman to have served on both the governing boards of the City and the school district.  Mrs. Dixon chose not to seek a second term and left the City Board on December 31, 1960.

Mrs. Dixon is the first woman to be elected to a City position without her husband having previously held that position.

Her father had a lumber business, in which she worked off and on throughout her lifetime. She served not only as an officer of the business, but had a desk at the office and participated in the daily business.  She was also very active in Methodist Woman functions in Little Rock and Arkansas.

Women’s History Month – Carolyn Conner, first woman on LR City Council

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glass-connerCarolyn Conner was elected to the Little Rock City Council in April 1931. She was initially elected to fill out the remaining year of her husband’s term on the Little Rock City Council. She received 551 votes, or 61.6% besting two male candidates.

She was not the first woman to run for City Council.  In 1924, Mrs. George M. Waller challenged Charles M. Connor (no relation to Carolyn Conner).

In 1932, Carolyn Conner was reelected and would continue to serve on the council until April 1942, winning a total of six elections.  Mrs. Conner was the first woman to be elected to any City of Little Rock office.  She was also the first to chair a council committee, leading the Civic Affairs Committee from 1933 to 1935. On October 16, 1933, she was chosen as Acting Mayor becoming the first woman to lead the City of Little Rock and preside at a council meeting.

In December 1939, she also became the first female alderman to be arrested for contempt of court along with eleven of her male colleagues.  The judge did not send her to jail, though he did the male aldermen.  At the end of the day their sentences were suspended.

In April 1941, Mildred Craig joined Mrs. Conner on the Council after being elected to finish out her husband’s term.  Their service marked the first time there were two women on the City Council.

Women’s History Month – Lillian Dees McDermott

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glass-mcdermottLillian Dees McDermott served on the Little Rock School Board from 1922 to 1946.

Not only was she the first woman to be elected to the School Board, she was also one of the longest-serving members of the board.  She was elected several times to serve as President of the School Board, becoming the first woman to have that title.  During one of her terms, plans to construct Little Rock High School (now Central) and Dunbar High School (now Dunbar Middle School) were finalized.

In her capacity as President, she had to sign contracts. She became the first woman in the country to sign a multi-million dollar contract for a public building project.  McDermott Elementary is named in her memory.

Women’s History Month – Erle Chambers, first woman sworn-in to Arkansas House of Representatives

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rep-erle-chambersFirst woman sworn in as a member of the Arkansas General Assembly: Erle Chambers. 

Miss Chambers of Little Rock was elected in 1922 at the same time as Frances Hunt of Pine Bluff. But because members were sworn in based on their last names, she was actually sworn in first.

She had trained as an attorney at both the University of Arkansas and the University of Chicago, but never practiced law.  She served as Pulaski County probation officer from 1913 until 1917. At that time, she went to work for the Tuberculosis Association, where she would work until her death in 1941.

Miss Chambers served in the Arkansas General Assembly from 1923 until 1926.

Little Rock Women’s History Month – Lucy D. Dixon

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Lucy DixonKnown professionally as Mrs. Edgar F. Dixon (in an era when married women were listed publicly by their husband’s names), Lucy D. Dixon was elected to the Little Rock City Board of Directors in November 1957.  Though not noted at the time, her election was historic.  She was the first woman elected to a municipal office in Little Rock who had not first succeeded her husband.  Prior to her service on the City Board, Mrs. Dixon had served on the Little Rock School Board.  She was secretary of that body during the 1957 desegregation crisis.

Lucy Ann Dulin was born in Hensley in 1904.  She moved to Little Rock and graduated from Little Rock High School (then located on Scott Street) and attended the University of Arkansas.  From 1927 until 1935, she worked for her family’s business – Dulin Bauxite Company.  She returned to the company in 1941 and worked there until 1950.  She later served on the company’s board of directors.

Beginning in 1935, she became involved with the PTA and rose to the position of National Secretary in 1949, serving for three years in that position. As a PTA officer, she visited thirty-six of the then forty-eight states.

Among her other leadership positions were executive vice chair of the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Education, trustee of Little Rock Junior College (now UALR), delegate to the White House Conference on Children and Youth, delegate to White House Conference on Education, Pulaski County Welfare Board, and Little Rock Planning Commission.  She was also active in many Methodist organizations.  In 1953, she was the Arkansas Democrat Woman of the Year.

Married to Edgar F. Dixon, she had three children: Philip Edgar, Barbara and Mimi.  She died in January 1996 at age of 91.

LR Women’s History Month – Ruth May Wassell Gibb

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Ruth-May-Wassell-GibbOn August 27, 1944, Ruth May Wassell shattered a bottle on the hull of a new ship and christened it the U.S.S. Little Rock.  Mrs. Wassell, whose husband was Little Rock alderman Sam Wassell, had been designated as the official sponsor for the City of Little Rock by Mayor Charles Moyer.

Ruth May Wassell was more than the wife of a local political leader.  The daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Wiley Singleton May, she moved from Gurdon to Little Rock with her family and graduated from Little Rock High School. She later graduated from Henderson-Brown College and received a law degree from the University of Arkansas.  In 1932, she was admitted to the Arkansas Bar and later was admitted to practice before the Arkansas Supreme Court, one of the first women to receive this designation.

Mrs. Wassell was active in business, serving as president of the Arkansas Lumber Company  and owner of a citrus farm in Texas.  She was also active in civic affairs through involvement with the Arkansas Democratic Women, Boys Club and Second Presbyterian Church.  From 1947 until 1951 she was First Lady of Little Rock when Sam Wassell was elected as Mayor.

Following the December 1954 death of Mayor Wassell, she subsequently married E. W. “Bud” Gibb.  She died in 1964.