Ross, Nellie Tayloe, 1876-1977

<p>Nellie Tayloe Ross was born in Missouri and rose to become the first female governor in our nation’s history. Ross’s rise to fame was truly amazing because of the time period in which it happened, and also because she never formally agreed to run for the office. Her time as first woman governor was followed by another prestigious honor, the first woman leader of the U.S. Mint.</p>

<p>Nellie Davis Tayloe was born in St. Joseph on November 29, 1876. Her family lived in the northwestern part of the state until she was about to enter school, when they moved to Omaha, Nebraska.</p>

<p>Nellie moved to Wyoming shortly after meeting William Bradford Ross during a visit to see her relatives. He was an attorney and aspiring politician, while she was content to play the role of mother and supporter of her husband’s ambition. William was elected as the governor of Wyoming. But his time on the job was short-lived. One year after taking office, he died after an appendectomy operation.</p>

<p>The state had no lieutenant governor to take his spot. The position was filled by the secretary of state until a special election could be held to elect a successor. Nellie was gaining support from many Democratic leaders, but she never officially claimed the nomination. She hinted that if she were elected, she would fulfill her husband’s goals that he set forth during his short time in office. Wyoming voters also rallied around the fact that they were the first state to allow women to vote, so they too should have the first woman governor. Only one month after her husband passed away, Nellie won the 1924 election by only eight thousand votes, which made her the first woman governor in the history of the United States.</p>

<p>Nellie was inaugurated as Wyoming’s 13th governor on January 5, 1925. That date is significant, because is 15 days before the first woman governor of Texas was sworn into office.</p>

<p>Historians agree she did a capable job as the chief executive of the state, although few of her initiatives made it past the Republican-controlled legislature. She focused on core Democratic principles during her tenure, including tax relief for poor families and women’s rights. Her time in office was also short, as Ross was defeated two years later by an opponent who received barely one-thousand more votes than her.</p>

<p>The name recognition that came along with being the first woman in office brought some benefits. President Franklin D. Roosevelt made history once again for Ross, naming her the first female director of the U.S. Mint. She held the post for 20 years, including the turbulent time during World War II where the amounts of copper, zinc, and nickel were reduced because of war rationing. She became the first woman to have her likeness stamped on a mint medal. In addition, her name is engraved on the silver depository at West Point. Her long and historical life ended in 1977 at the age of 101.</p>

<p>Nellie Davis Tayloe Ross (November 29, 1876 – December 19, 1977) was an American politician, the 14th governor of Wyoming from 1925 to 1927 and director of the United States Mint from 1933 to 1953. She was the first woman to be sworn in as governor of a U.S. state, and remains the only woman to have served as governor of Wyoming.</p>

<p>Ross was born in St. Joseph, Missouri to James Wynns Tayloe, a native of Tennessee, and Elizabeth Blair Green, who owned a plantation on the Missouri River. Her family moved to Miltonvale, Kansas in 1884, and she graduated from Miltonvale High School in 1892. She attended a teacher-training college for two years and taught kindergarten for four years.</p>

<p>On September 11, 1902, Ross married William B. Ross, whom she had met when visiting relatives in Tennessee in 1900. William B. Ross was governor of Wyoming from 1923 to his death on October 2, 1924. Ross succeeded her late husband's successor Frank Lucas as governor when she won the special election, becoming the first female American governor on January 5, 1925. She was a staunch supporter of Prohibition during the 1920s. She lost re-election in 1926 but remained an active member of the Democratic Party.</p>

<p>In 1933, Ross became the first female Director of the United States Mint. Despite initial mistrust, she forged a strong bond with Mary Margaret O'Reilly, the Assistant Director of the Mint and one of the United States' highest-ranking female civil servants of her time. Ross served five terms as Director, retiring in 1953. During her later years, she wrote for various women's magazines and traveled. Ross died in Washington, D.C., at the age of 101. </p>

NELLIE TAYLOE ROSS, the first woman to take the oath of office and serve as governor of a state, was born in St. Joseph, Missouri. Educated in both public and private schools, she settled in Cheyenne after her marriage to William B. Ross. Upon the death of her husband, who had been elected Governor in 1922, Nellie Ross was nominated as the Democratic candidate for the unexpired term of the governorship pursuant to the convening of an emergency Democratic State Convention, and defeated her Republican opponent to take her husband’s place. As governor, she stressed the need for tax relief for farmers, and proposed legislation to require counties, school boards, and the state council to prepare budgets and publish them before levying any taxes. She opposed legislation to empower the state bankers’ association to appoint state bank examiners, instead backing a measure designed to prevent bank failures while making examining officials responsible to the governor. After being defeated for reelection in 1926, Ross went on to become vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, and was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to two five-year terms as Director of the U.S. Mint. She died in Washington, D.C.