Farrington, Elizabeth P. (Elizabeth Pruett), 1898-
Variant namesBiographical notes:
Mary Elizabeth Pruett Farrington (May 30, 1898 – July 21, 1984), more commonly known as Elizabeth P. Farrington, was publisher of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and an American stateswoman who served as delegate to the United States Congress for the Territory of Hawai'i from 1954 to 1957. She was a member of the Republican Party.
Born in Tokyo to American parents on May 30, 1898, she attended Tokyo Foreign School before moving back to the United States. She attended grammar schools in Nashville, Tennessee, El Paso, Texas and Los Angeles, California. After graduating from Hollywood High School, Farrington attended Ward-Belmont Women's Junior College of Nashville and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, meeting her husband, Joseph Farrington, at the latter. After President Warren G. Harding appointed her father-in-law territorial governor of Hawai'i, Elizabeth Farrington moved with her husband to Honolulu to manage the family-owned Honolulu Star-Bulletin. In the early 1930s, Joseph Farrington was elected to the Hawai'i territorial senate and began a long political career in which he relied heavily on his wife for advice.
In 1942, Joseph Farrington was elected to the first of six consecutive terms in the U.S. House as a Republican Territorial Delegate from Hawai'i. Elizabeth Farrington immersed herself in party politics, serving as president of the District League of Republican Women from 1946 to 1948. On January 1, 1949, she became president of the National Federation of Women’s Republican Clubs. After her husband's unexpected death, Farrington was elected to the United States Congress in a special election to fill the vacancy. Narrowly elected to a full term that November, Farrington spent her time in Congress advocating for Hawaiian statehood. She lost her bid for re-election to a third term in Congress and returned to her family's newspaper business in Honolulu.
After leaving Congress, Farrington continued to serve as president of the Star-Bulletin until 1961. Farrington lived to see her husband’s dream of statehood for Hawai'i realized in 1959. She was invited to the ceremony at which President Eisenhower signed the legislation that made Hawai'i the fiftieth state to enter the Union. She also directed and chaired the Honolulu Lithograph Company, Ltd., from 1957 to 1961 and was president of the Hawaiian Broadcasting System, Ltd., from 1960 to 1963. In 1969 President Richard M. Nixon appointed Farrington Director of the Office of the Territories in the Department of the Interior. When the Department of the Interior abolished the post in 1971, she worked in the congressional liaison office until 1973. After retirement, Betty Farrington returned to Honolulu, where she lived until her death.
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Subjects:
- Overland journeys to the Pacific
- Pioneers
- Women pioneers
Occupations:
- Businesswomen
- Newspaper publishers
- Representatives, U.S. Congress
Places:
- TN, US
- HI, US
- WI, US
- 40, JP
- TX, US
- CA, US
- Oregon (as recorded)
- Oregon National Historic Trail (as recorded)
- West (U.S.) (as recorded)
