Bolton, Frances Payne Bingham, 1885-1977

Frances Payne Bingham Bolton (March 29, 1885 – March 9, 1977) was a Republican politician from Ohio. She served in the United States House of Representatives. She was the first woman elected to Congress from Ohio. In the late 1930s Bolton took an isolationist position on foreign policy, opposing the Selective Service Act (the draft) in 1940, and opposing Lend-Lease in 1941. During the war she called for desegregation of the military nursing units, which were all-white and all-female. In 1947 she sponsored a long-range bill for nursing education, but it did not pass. When the draft was resumed after the war, Bolton strongly advocated the conscription of women. Pointing to their prominent role during the war, she said it was vitally important that women continue to play these essential roles. She saw no threat to marriage, and argued that women in military service would develop their character and skills, thus enhancing their role in the family. As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Bolton strongly supported the United Nations, especially UNICEF, and strongly supported the independence of African colonies.

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Frances Payne Bingham was educated at private schools and with private tutors in Cleveland, New York City, and in Paris. On September 14, 1907, Frances Bingham married attorney Chester Castle Bolton. During World War I, she inherited a trust fund established by her uncle, Oliver Hazard Payne, a founder of Standard Oil. The bequest made Bolton one of the world’s wealthiest women and allowed her to establish the Payne Fund, which eventually distributed grants into areas of particular interest to her. Chester Bolton entered politics, serving as an Ohio state Senator from 1923 to 1928 and in the US House of Representatives from 1929 to 1937 and from January 1939 until his death that October. Frances Bolton decided to seek her late husband’s House seat; her deep pockets, both for her own campaign and the party’s statewide effort, factored into her initial 1940 campaign success. She was easily elected in the February 1940 special election for the seat. She would thereafter be re-elected to fourteen full terms. She became the only mother to serve simultaneously with her son, Oliver Payne Bolton, when he represented a district east of his mother’s for three terms (1953-1957 and 1963-1965). In 1955, she became the first American woman member of Congress to head an international delegation, using her own resources to fund it.

In her final campaign in 1968, Bolton was caught in a redistricting battle. Democratic Congressman Charles Vanik, first elected to the House to represent another Cleveland seat in 1954, challenged Bolton in her newly redrawn, majority-Democratic district. Vanik defeated the 83-year-old Bolton with 55 percent of the vote. After the election, the Richard M. Nixon administration considered rewarding her long career with an ambassadorship. Bolton demurred, “No... I’m retired. Now I can do what I please.” She returned to Lyndhurst, Ohio, where she resided until her death shortly before her 92nd birthday.