Caraway, Hattie Wyatt, 1878-1950

Hattie Ophelia Wyatt Caraway (February 1, 1878 – December 21, 1950) was an American politician who became the first woman elected to serve a full term as a United States Senator. Caraway represented Arkansas. She was the first woman to preside over the Senate. She won reelection to a full term in 1932 with the active support of fellow Senator Huey Long, of neighboring Louisiana. She was the first woman to win a election for the United States Senate.

A native of Humphreys County, Tennessee, Hattie Wyatt married Thaddeus H. Caraway, a former classmate at Dickson College and future United States Congressman (1913-1921) and United States Senator (1921-1931). After her husband's death, Arkansas governor Harvey Parnell appointed Hattie Caraway to the vacant seat, and she was sworn into office on December 9. With the Democratic Party of Arkansas's backing, she easily won a special election in January 1932 for the remaining months of the term, becoming the first woman elected to the Senate. She won reelection in her own right to the seat later in 1932 with the help of Louisiana Gov. Huey Long, who campaigned for her. Caraway was reelected again in 1938 but failed in her bid for a third term in 1944. In her 13 years in the Senate, she was the first woman to preside over a session of that body and the first to serve as a committee chairman.

On her final day in the Senate, she received a rare standing ovation from her all-male colleagues. Franklin Roosevelt then appointed her to the Employees' Compensation Commission, and in 1946, President Harry S. Truman gave her a post on the Employees' Compensation Appeals Board, on which she served until suffering a stroke in January 1950. She died on December 21 of the same year in Falls Church, Virginia, and was buried in Oaklawn Cemetery in Jonesboro, Arkansas.