Thompson, Ruth, 1887-1970

<p>Ruth Thompson, a longtime lawyer and judge, became the first woman to represent Michigan in Congress and the first to serve on the House Judiciary Committee. Her legislative interests were eclectic, ranging from a proposal to create a Department of Peace to the establishment of a congressional Page academy. Representative Thompson’s career ended abruptly following a contentious fight over the development of a jet fighter base in her northwestern Michigan district.</p>

<p>Ruth Thompson was the first child born to Thomas and Bertha Thompson in Whitehall, Michigan, on September 15, 1887. She attended public schools and graduated from the Muskegon Business College in Muskegon, Michigan, in 1905. Beginning in 1918, she worked in a law office and studied law in night school for six years before she was admitted to the bar in 1924, becoming the first female lawyer in Muskegon County. She also served as the registrar of the county’s probate court for 18 years. Thompson was elected judge of probate in Muskegon County in 1925, a position she held for 12 years. In 1938 she won election to a term in the Michigan state house of representatives as one of the state’s first female legislators. From 1941 to 1942, Thompson worked for the Social Security Board’s Old Age and Survivor’s Insurance Division in Washington, DC. She then worked for three years in the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division. In 1945, Thompson went to Headquarters Command of U.S. occupation forces in Frankfurt, Germany, and Copenhagen, Denmark, where she worked on the adjutant general’s staff. A year later, she returned to private law practice in Michigan.</p>

<p>In 1950, when Michigan’s GOP Representative Albert Joseph Engel, a 16-year House veteran, declined to run for re-election to campaign for the governorship, Thompson entered the race to fill his vacant seat. In the Republican primary, she turned back challenges from the Muskegon County GOP chairman and a former lieutenant governor, relying on grass-roots campaigning and her name recognition from years as a judge. “I started out in my car and stopped all over, ringing doorbells, visiting business places, talking with the people on the streets, and addressing countless gatherings,” Thompson recalled, traveling around the northwestern Michigan district. “Many of those whom I met were people I had known when I was probate judge—I’d handled their estates, helped them when they wanted to adopt children, or placed young wards of the court in their homes for boarding.” In the general election, she defeated Democrat Noel P. Fox, chairman of the state labor mediation board, with 55 percent of the vote in the rural and Republican-leaning district bordering Lake Michigan. She won comfortable re-election campaigns in 1952 and 1954 with 60 and 56 percent of the vote, respectively. In the latter campaign, Thompson turned back a GOP primary challenge from Robert Engel, son of the former Representative from the district.</p>

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<p>Ruth Thompson (September 15, 1887 – April 5, 1970) was a Republican politician from the U.S. state of Michigan. A lawyer by profession, she served three terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1951 to 1957.</p>

<p>Thompson was born in Whitehall, Michigan and attended the public schools. She graduated from Muskegon Business College of nearby Muskegon in 1905, and became a lawyer with a private practice.</p>

<p>She was registrar of probate court of Muskegon County and judge of probate from 1925 to 1937. She gained national recognition as an advocate for children's rights during that period. She was elected the county's first female state representative in 1938 and served as a member of the Michigan House of Representatives (Muskegon County 1st district) from 1939 to 1941.</p>