Occupation: columnist, Senator
Known for: first woman to serve in the United States Senate
About Rebecca Ann Felton: Rebecca Ann Felton, born in 1835, graduated in 1862 from the Madison (Georgia) Female College, first in her class. In 1853 she married a local physician and Democratic politician, William H. Felton.
Rebecca Ann Felton helped her husband by writing speeches and helping him plan campaign strategy, and after his election by helping to draft legislation, while he served as US Congressman.
She had her own column in the Atlanta Journal where she made her views known. She was for women's rights and temperance, and for honest government. She also approved of lynching and child labor, and her views were obviously anti-black and anti-Semitic.
In 1893 she served on the board of lady managers of the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In 1894-5 she chaired the women's executive board of the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta. In 1904, she served on the agricultural board at the Louisiana Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri.
In 1922, Georgia Senator Thomas E. Watson died just before the end of his term. Governor Hardwick, who knew that Rebecca Ann Felton shared his strong opposition to the policies of President Woodrow Wilson, appointed her to the open Senate seat, where she served for two days, November 21-22, 1922, until the newly elected Walter F. George was sworn in.
Rebecca Ann Felton had four sons and a daughter, all of whom died before she did. On the day after her death, the US Senate adjourned early to honor the memory of Felton, the only woman to that date to be a member of the Senate. (Hattie Caraway was appointed in December 1931.)
