Hall, Fanny Southard Hay, 1872-

Fanny Southard (Hay) Hall was born September 26, 1872, to Malcolm and Virginia (Southard) Hay. She was one of nine children (six of whom survived childhood), including Virginia, Lucy, Edith, Margaret, and Southard. She attended St. Agnes School in Albany, N.Y., and Bishop Thorpe School in Bethlehem, Pa. On April 11, 1896, she married Keppele Hall, Princeton graduate and electrical engineer, in Trenton, N.J.

The Halls lived in Maine and Massachusetts before moving to Dayton, Ohio, where, during the flood emergency of 1913, FSHH took part in relief efforts undertaken by the American Red Cross. She also became involved in the suffrage movement, and was a member of the board of directors of the Woman's Suffrage Association of Montgomery County, Ohio. She was a member of the Ohio delegation marching in the 1913 suffrage parade in Washington, D.C. During the years before the war, the Halls moved frequently, living in Philadelphia, Bangor, Maine (where FSHH continued her Red Cross work), Springfield, Ohio, and South Lancaster, Mass. During World War I, the Halls lived in Washington, D.C., where Keppele Hall was stationed.

After the war, the Halls moved to Cleveland, where Keppele Hall served as production manager for Joseph & Feiff Company. Upon moving to Cleveland, FSHH decided she desired her "own career," and became actively involved in a number of Cleveland civic associations. Appalled by her observations of police brutality during her suffrage work, she joined the Women's City Club, and became chair of its courts committee. The courts committee called for an elected public defender, the establishment of a women's bureau within the police department, and the construction of a new courthouse and prison. She worked with numerous other organizations, many of which focused on issues relating to crime and prison reform. She served as treasurer of the Ohio Committee on Penal Conditions and as a board member for the Legal Aid Society and Consumers' League of Ohio. She also participated in the Cleveland Association for Criminal Justice and the League of Women Voters. In 1923, FSHH became the first American woman to serve as foreman of a grand jury. An active member of the Women's Council for the Promotion of Peace, she was instrumental in organizing a 1924 peace parade in Cleveland. In addition to her civic work, FSHH published the diary of her great aunt, Lucy Ann Higbee, in 1924.

The Halls moved to New York City in 1926, and Keppele Hall died suddenly of influenza shortly thereafter. FSHH remained in New York, but she lost a great deal of money in the stock market crash of 1929,and subsequently worked as a home visitor for the Emergency Work Bureau. She continued her civic work as a member of the New York Women's Club and the Consumer League. She retained her lifelong interest in the criminal justice system, and was a frequent visitor to the Reformatory for Women at Framingham, Mass. FSHH died in Brattleboro, Vt., in June 1968.

From the guide to the Papers, 1860-1967, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)