Ruth Bryan Owen
Ruth Bryan Owen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| United States Ambassador to Denmark | |
| In office 1933–1936 | |
| President | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | Frederick W. B. Coleman |
| Succeeded by | Alvin Mansfield Owsley |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 2, 1885 Jacksonville, Illinois |
| Died | July 26, 1954 (aged 68) Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | William Leavitt (1903-1909) (divorce) Reginald Owen (1910-1928)(his death) Borge Rohde (1936-1950) (his death) |
| Profession | Politician, Author |
Ruth Bryan Owen (October 2, 1885 – July 26, 1954) was the daughter of William Jennings Bryan and mother of Helen Rudd Brown. A Democrat, in 1929 she became Florida’s (and the South's) first woman representative in the United States Congress, coming from Florida’s 4th district.
Personal life
In 1903 Ruth Bryan dropped out of the University of Nebraska to marry William Leavitt. The couple had two children before divorcing in 1909. She married Reginald Owen, a British Army officer in 1910, bearing two more children. Her second husband died in 1928.
Public life
During World War I, she served as a war nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment in the Egypt-Palestine campaign, 1915-1918. From 1925 to 1928, she was an administrator at the University of Miami.
Owen first ran for office in 1926 for the Democratic nomination for Florida's Fourth Congressional District, losing by fewer than 800 votes.[1]. Two years later, after the death of her husband, she ran again. She was elected to Congress (March 4, 1929-March 3, 1933) while a widow and mother of four. Her election was contested on the grounds that she lost her citizenship on her marriage to an alien. By the Cable Act in 1922, she could petition for her citizenship, which she only did in 1925, less than the seven years required by the Constitution. She argued her case before the House Committee on Elections that no American man had ever lost his citizenship by marriage; therefore, Owen argued she lost her citizenship because she was a woman, not because of her marital status. The U.S. House voted in her favor. [2][3] Although Owen won again in 1930, she was defeated for renomination in 1932 by a candidate advocating the repeal of the unpopular Eighteenth Amendment.
First U.S. Woman Ambassador
From 1933 to 1936 she was U.S. Minister to Denmark, appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. [4][5] She served successfully until 1936 when she married Borge Rohde, a Danish Captain of the King's Guard, in July. This gave her dual citizenship as a Dane, so she resigned her post in September.[6]
She was also a delegate to the San Francisco Conference which established the United Nations after World War II. In 1948, President Truman named her an alternate delegate to the U.N. General Assembly.
She died July 26, 1954 in Copenhagen, Denmark and was cremated. Her ashes were interred at Ordrup Cemetery, Copenhagen.
Published Work
- Owen, Ruth Bryan Elements of Public Speaking New York, H. Liveright (1931)
- Owen, Ruth Bryan Leaves from a Greenland Diary New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. (1935)
- Owen, Ruth Bryan Denmark Caravan New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. (1936)
- Owen, Ruth Bryan Picture Tales from Scandinavia Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co. (1939)
- Owen, Ruth Bryan The Castle in the Silver Wood and Other Scandinavian Fairy New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. (1939)
- Owen, Ruth Bryan Look Forward, Warrior New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. (1942)
Other
In 1992, she was inducted in the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame.
References
- ^ Morin, Isobel V., Women Chosen for Public Office The Oliver Press, (1995), p78
- ^ U. S. Congress. House. Arguments and Hearings before Elections Committee No. 1; Contested Election Case of William C. Lawson v. Ruth Bryan Owen, from the Fourth Congressional District of Florida. 71st Cong., 2nd sess., 1930. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1930.
- ^ U. S. Congress. House. Report No. 968. Committee on Elections No. 1. William C. Lawson-Ruth Bryan Owen Election Case. Report of the Hon. Carroll L. Beedy, of Maine, chairman. 71st Cong., 2nd sess., 1930. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1930.
- ^ United States Department of State: Ambassadors to Denmark
- ^ Congressional Biography
- ^ Time Obituary, Aug 9, 1954.
- Vickers, Sarah Pauline. The Life of Ruth Bryan Owen: Florida’s First Congresswoman and America’s First Woman Diplomat. Ph.D. dissertation, Florida State University, (1994)