Edith Wilmans

Edith Eunice Therrel Wilmans (December 21, 1882 – March 21, 1966) was a Texas lawyer and politician. She was the first woman elected to the Texas State Legislature, in 1922.

Life and career

Edith Eunice Therrel was a native of Lake Providence, Louisiana, the daughter of Benjamin Franklin and Mary Elizabeth Grier Therrel. With her parents she moved to Dallas, Texas in 1885, and she attended public schools there. On Christmas Day 1900 she married Jacob Hall Wilmans, with whom she would have three daughters.[1]

Wilmans was quite active in Dallas civic affairs; in 1914 she assisted in the organization of the Dallas Equal Suffrage Association, and later helped create the Dallas Housewives League and the Democratic Women of Dallas County; she also served as president of the Democratic Women's Association of Texas.[1] Known as well for her work in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the League of Business and Professional Women. she was also active in her daughters' Parent-Teacher Association, and in her church as well; she also was a member of two anti--communist groups, Minute Women of the U.S.A. and the Paul Revere Club.[2] Interested in learning more about legal matters and improving women's status, she studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1918.[1]

Wilmans was elected to the Thirty-eighth Texas Legislature in 1922; representing District 50, of Dallas County.[1] She was one of eight women who ran for the legislature that year, but was the only one to win her race, a feat made more impressive because she unseated a long-time incumbent,[3] John E. Davis of Mesquite.[2] In her victory she is said to have been assisted by the Ku Klux Klan,[4] although her position on the Klan's existence remains unclear.[2] She took her seat in 1923, the same year her husband died. While in Austin she supported legislation for the support and care of children, and pressed for establishment of the Dallas County District Court of Domestic Relations;[1] she also championed a bill which would require compulsory education for all Texas children under the age of fourteen.[4] Only one of her five bills passed; two passed the House were killed in the Senate, and one made it out of committee but was not considered by the House as a whole.[2] She served on a number of committees, including Common Carriers; Counties; Education, Oil, Gas and Mining; and Public Health. She was also the first woman to preside as Speaker of the House, although it appears to have been an honorary appointment only.[5]

Wilmans served only one term; her predecessor unseated her in the following election.[3] She then twice ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Texas in 1926 and 1928[4] but while incumbent governor Miriam A. Ferguson, also a Democrat, was seen as a surrogate for her corrupt husband, Wilmans was too liberal a choice for much of the electorate.[3] She had in fact supported Ferguson in 1924, likely as a result of a desire to see a woman prove herself in the role of governor.[2] Her campaign platforms included both campaign and prison reform.[4] She also pledged not to marry while in office, stating that a woman should prove to be independent of any man in such a position.[2] In 1925 Wilmans was appointed by Governor Pat M. Neff to the All-Woman Supreme Court alongside Nellie Gray Robertson and Hortense Sparks Ward, but was forced to resign when it was discovered she, along with Robertson lacked, by a few months, the required seven years' experience practicing law in the state. The women were replaced by Ruth Virginia Brazzil and Hattie Leah Henenberg.[1]

Wilmans was endorsed by the National Woman's Party as a candidate for Vice-President of the United States in the 1928 presidential election, but refused to run.[2] She married again in 1929; her new husband was Henry A. Born of Chicago. The abusive[4] marriage ended in divorce, and she returned to Dallas, becoming a lawyer there once again. In 1935 she ran again for the legislature and was defeated; that year she bought a farm near Vineyard, in Jack County.[1] She challenged her sister in another election for her old seat, again losing.[4] Moving to the farm in Vineyard to raise goats and cattle,[2] she ran in 1948 and 1951, in a special election, for the Thirteenth District seat in the United States Congress, but was defeated both times. She continued the practice of law until her retirement in 1958.[3] In that year she returned to Dallas to live with her eldest daughter, having broken her hip; she died there eight years later.[2] She was buried in Hillcrest Memorial Park in the city.[1] Her papers are held by the Texas State Archive.[2]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "WILMANS, EDITH EUNICE THERREL". tshaonline.org. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Nancy Baker Jones; Ruthe Winegarten (22 July 2010). Capitol Women: Texas Female Legislators, 1923–1999. University of Texas Press. pp. 80–. ISBN 978-0-292-78853-4.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Women Wielding Power-Texas". nwhm.org. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Carmen Goldthwaite (2012). Texas Dames: Sassy and Savvy Women Throughout Lone Star History. The History Press. pp. 131–. ISBN 978-1-60949-812-2.
  5. ↑ Texas Legislative Reference Library. "Legislative Reference Library – Legislators and Leaders – Member profile". state.tx.us. Retrieved 14 September 2015.

External links

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