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Bessie S. McColgin
HickoryOughtShirt?4: Passes WP:NPOL, #1Day1Woman
'''Amelia Elizabeth "Bessie" Simison McColgin''' (January 7, 1875 – July 9, 1972) was an American businesswoman and politician. She was the first woman elected to the [[Oklahoma House of Representatives]].
==Early life==
Simison was born in Kansas on January 7, 1875, and was educated at the Teachers Normal College and [[Wesleyan University]].<ref name = "x"></ref> As both her parents died when she was three years old, she was raised by relatives in Illinois.<ref name = "McKee"></ref> She married Grant McColgin in 1895 and they moved to Oklahoma in 1901.<ref name = "Weatherford"></ref> A few years later, the family moved to Rankin where she and her husband established the Rankin Telephone Company in their home.<ref name = "x"/> She also organized a Women's Christian Temperance Union chapter,<ref name = "Defrange"></ref> and was a school teacher in Rankin's first public school.<ref name = "Weatherford"/>
==Career==
While pregnant with her 10th child, McColgin became the first woman elected to the [[Oklahoma House of Representatives]].<ref></ref> It has been suggested that she did not decide to run on the Republican ballot, but men in her family did so behind her back.<ref name = "Defrange"/> She had been elected due to her involvement in the Western Oklahoma community and was seen as a "superior orator."<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> While in office, McColgin was heavily involved in health and safety legislation, and thus introduced a bill to create a Bureau of Child Hygiene.<ref name = "herhatwasinthering"/> She also attempted to pass legislature from female Senator [[Lamar Looney]], but few succeeded.<ref name = "McKee"/> She was also involved in a soldiers' relief program and helped establish a Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Oklahoma.<ref name = "herhatwasinthering"></ref> Although she was not re-elected for a second term, three new female members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives were elected in 1923.<ref name = "x"/> On the last day of her term, she was presented with a wristwatch from her male colleagues to commemorate her service, which they jokingly stated was because "women legislators need to be watched."<ref name = "okhistory"></ref> Nearly 40 years after stepping down from politics, McColgin's son was elected to the same seat she had filled.<ref name = "Defrange"/>
McColgin died at the age of 97 in Sayre, Oklahoma, on July 9, 1972.<ref name = "okhistory"/> She was posthumously inducted into the [[Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame]] in 2005.<ref></ref>
== References ==
[[Category:1972 deaths]]
[[Category:1875 births]]
[[Category:Members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives]]
[[Category:20th-century women politicians]]
[[Category:20th-century American women politicians]]
[[Category:Wesleyan University alumni]]
[[Category:People from Kansas]]
[[Category:Oklahoma Republicans]]
December 07, 2019 at 03:06PM
