Caraway, Hattie Wyatt, 1878-1950

<p>Hattie Ophelia Caraway, née Hattie Ophelia Wyatt, (born Feb. 1, 1878, near Bakerville, Tenn., U.S.—died Dec. 21, 1950, Falls Church, Va.), American politician who became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate.</p>

<p>Hattie Wyatt grew up in her native Bakerville, Tenn., and in nearby Hustburg. She graduated (1896) from Dickson Normal School and for a time thereafter taught school. In 1902 she married Thaddeus H. Caraway, who subsequently became a congressman and then a U.S. senator for Arkansas.</p>

<p>When Thaddeus died in November 1931, Hattie Caraway was appointed by the governor to fill her husband’s seat until a special election could be held; she thereby became the second woman (after Rebecca Felton, 1922) to be seated in the U.S. Senate. She won a special election (January 1932) to fill the few remaining months of her late husband’s term. 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.</p>

<p>In her voting Caraway generally supported the New Deal and other legislation of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration; she opposed isolationism, supported veterans and organized labour, and in 1943 became the first woman in Congress to cosponsor the Equal Rights Amendment. Her reelection in 1938 after a primary victory over Rep. John L. McClellan firmly established her as a senator in her own right, and her dry humour and homely sayings made her a favourite national figure. In the 1944 Democratic primary in Arkansas, she was defeated by Rep. J. William Fulbright, and she left the Senate in 1945.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>Hattie Wyatt was born near rural Bakerville in Humphreys County in west central Tennessee, the daughter of William Carroll Wyatt, a farmer and shopkeeper, and the former Lucy Mildred Burch. At the age of four, she moved with her family to Hustburg in Humphreys County. Despite her family's relative poverty, she had always hoped to pursue higher education, which was made possible through the generosity of a wealthy aunt. After briefly attending Ebenezer College in Hustburg, she transferred to Dickson (Tennessee) Normal College, wherein 1896 she received her Bachelor of Arts degree. She taught school for a time before in 1902 marrying Thaddeus Caraway, whom she had met in college. They had three children: Paul, Forrest, and Robert; Paul and Forrest became generals in the United States Army. The couple settled in Jonesboro, Arkansas, where he established a legal practice while she cared for the children, tended the household and kitchen garden, and helped to oversee the family's cotton farm.</p>

<p>The Caraways established a second home Riversdale at Riverdale Park, Maryland. Husband Thaddeus was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1912, and he served in that office until 1921 when he became a U.S. senator. Although she took an interest in her husband's political career, Hattie Caraway avoided the capital's social and political life as well as the campaign for women's suffrage. She recalled that "after equal suffrage I just added voting to cooking and sewing and other household duties." Thaddeus Caraway died in office in 1931. Following the precedent of appointing widows to temporarily take their husbands' places, 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.</p>

CARAWAY, HATTIE WYATT, (wife of Thaddeus Horatius Caraway), a Senator from Arkansas; born in Bakerville, Humphreys County, Tenn., February 1, 1878; attended the public schools and graduated from Dickson (Tenn.) Normal College in 1896; thereafter located in Jonesboro, Ark.; appointed as a Democrat on November 13, 1931, and subsequently elected on January 12, 1932, to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of her husband, Thaddeus H. Caraway; reelected in 1932 and 1938 and served from November 13, 1931, to January 3, 1945; unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1944; first woman elected to the United States Senate; chairwoman, Committee on Enrolled Bills (Seventy-third through Seventy-eighth Congresses); member of the United States Employees' Compensation Commission 1945-1946; member of the Employees' Compensation Appeals Board from July 1946 until her death in Falls Church, Va., December 21, 1950; interment in West Lawn Cemetery, Jonesboro, Ark.