Ferguson, Miriam Amanda, 1875-1961

Miriam Amanda Wallace (Ma) Ferguson (1875-1961), first female Governor of Texas, was born in Bell County, Texas, on June 13, 1875. She attended Salado College and Baylor Female College at Belton. In 1899, she married James Edward Ferguson. From 1915 to 1917, Mrs. Ferguson served as the first lady of Texas until her husband's impeachment during his second administration. When James Ferguson failed to get his name on the ballot in 1924, Miriam entered the race for the Texas governorship. Defeating a prohibitionist, pro-Ku Klux Klan Democrat in the August primary, she won without difficulty in November, becoming the first woman elected Governor in a regular election. Inaugurated fifteen days after Wyoming's Nellie Ross, Miriam Ferguson became the second woman governor in United States history.

Political strife and controversy characterized her first administration. Over two years she failed to realize her campaign goals of reducing wasteful spending and increasing funding for highways and education; she supported and signed an antimask law specifically aimed at the KKK only to see it overturned by the courts. She was also attacked for her extensive use of her power to grant pardons and parole. Though a threat to impeach her failed, these controversies helped Attorney General Dan Moody defeat Mrs. Ferguson for renomination in 1926 and win the governorship.

Though Ferguson did not seek office in 1928 and lost the Democratic primary in 1930, a strong political base helped to propel her to a second term as governor in 1932. She took office in 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, with Texas nearing bankruptcy. During her second term, she was a strong supporter of the New Deal. Ferguson’s second term ended in 1935; she had not sought reelection. Refusing to seek office in 1936 and 1938, she ran again for governor in 1940, losing in the Democratic primary to Governor W. Lee O'Daniel.

After her husband's death in 1944, Miriam Ferguson retired to private life in Austin. She died of heart failure on June 25, 1961, and was buried alongside her husband in the State Cemetery in Austin.