On This Day: Arkansas woman becomes first elected female senator

Hattie Caraway

Wikipedia Photo

Hattie Ophelia Wyatt Caraway became the first elected female senator On This Day in 1932. Caraway had been appointed two months earlier to fulfil her late husband’s Senate seat. She was re-elected in the 1938 elections.

Caraway was an Arkansas Democrat who had been born in Tennessee. Her husband was Thaddeus Horatio Caraway. In 1944, failing to win a third term, she was appointed to the Federal Employees Compensation Commission by President Franklin D Roosevelt.

She had also been the first widow to be appointed to fill her late husband's seat. She and her husband had three boys.

Source

First elected female senator. This Day in History. History.com. 12 January 1932.

On This Day is a prompt to further explore historical events.

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