Farrington, Elizabeth P. (Elizabeth Pruett), 1898-1984

<p>Mary E. Pruett (Betty) Farrington emerged in the mid-1950s as the leading advocate for Hawaiian statehood, serving three years in the House as a Territorial Delegate. Her political partnership with her husband, Joseph Rider Farrington, another champion of statehood, spanned decades and prepared her to succeed him in Congress after his death in 1954. Years before she was elected to Congress, <i>McCall</i>’s magazine chose Farrington, publisher of the <i>Honolulu Star-Bulletin</i> and director of the National Federation of Republican Women’s Clubs, as one of “Washington’s 10 Most Powerful Women,” a list that included First Ladies Eleanor Roosevelt and Bess Truman, and Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith.</p>

<p>Mary Elizabeth Pruett was born to American missionaries Robert Lee and Josie Baugh Pruett, native Tennesseans, on May 30, 1898, in the Tsukiji (foreign resident) section of Tokyo, Japan. She attended the Tokyo Foreign School before the family resettled in 1906 in Hollywood, California. After Mary Pruett graduated from Hollywood High School, she enrolled at Ward-Belmont Women’s Junior College in Nashville, Tennessee. Two years later, she transferred to the University of Wisconsin at Madison and earned a journalism BA in 1918. During her studies, she met Joseph Farrington, son of Wallace R. Farrington, publisher of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, and an early advocate of Hawaiian annexation and statehood. They married in May 1920 and, three years later, when President Warren G. Harding appointed Wallace Farrington territorial governor of Hawaii, Joe and Mary returned to the islands to manage the <i>Star-Bulletin</i>. The couple raised two adopted children: John and Beverly. In the early 1930s, Joe Farrington was elected to the Hawaii territorial senate and began a long political career in which he relied heavily on his wife for advice. “He didn’t make a move without talking to me,” Betty Farrington recalled. Joe Farrington soon succeeded his father as the newspaper’s general manager. By the mid-1940s, Betty Farrington assumed her husband’s duties as publisher and president of the <i>Honolulu Star-Bulletin</i>.</p>

<p>In 1942 Joe Farrington was elected to the first of six consecutive terms in the U.S. House as a Republican Territorial Delegate from Hawaii, propelling Betty Farrington into national politics too. Throughout Joe Farrington’s dozen years in Washington, the Farringtons were frequent entertainers and popular on the capital’s society circuit. Betty 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 (later named the National Federation of Republican Women), which included more than 500,000 members. Farrington energized the group by creating a school of politics in 1950 at which precinct workers received briefings on party history, current initiatives, and political techniques.</p>

<p>Mary Elizabeth Pruett Farrington (May 30, 1898 – July 21, 1984), more commonly known as Elizabeth P. Farrington, was publisher of the <i>Honolulu Star-Bulletin</i> and an American stateswoman who served as delegate to the United States Congress for the Territory of Hawai'i. She was the wife to Joseph Rider Farrington, whom she had succeeded in Washington, DC. Her father-in-law was the Territorial Governor of Hawai'i Wallace Rider Farrington.</p>

<p>Farrington was 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 obtained a degree from Ward-Belmont Junior College of Nashville in 1916. She went on to the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she met her husband. She graduated from Wisconsin in 1918. Newly married, she settled in Honolulu. She became a newspaper correspondent for the <i>Honolulu Star-Bulletin</i> through 1957.</p>

<p>Farrington was elected President of the League of Republican Women, an office she served in Washington, D.C. from 1946 to 1948. She was then elected to the National Federation of Women's Republican Clubs and served as its president from 1949 to 1953. In 1952, Farrington was a delegate for the Territory of Hawai'i to the Republican National Convention that nominated Dwight Eisenhower to become President of the United States.</p>