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Senate Years of Service: 1922-1922 Party: Democrat
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FELTON, Rebecca Latimer, (wife of William Harrell Felton),
a Senator from Georgia; born near Decatur, De Kalb County, Ga., June
10, 1835; attended the common schools and graduated from the Madison Female
College in 1852; moved to Bartow County, Ga., in 1854; taught school; writer,
lecturer, and reformer with special interest in agricultural and womens
issues; served as secretary to her husband while he was a Member of Congress
1875-1881; appointed by the Governor as a Democrat to the United States Senate
on October 3, 1922, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Thomas E.
Watson; took the oath of office on November 21, 1922, and then served just
twenty-four hours, from November 21 to 22, 1922, a successor having been
elected; was not a candidate for election to fill the vacancy; the first woman
to occupy a seat in the United States Senate; the Senator who, having served
one day, served the shortest term; and the oldest Senator, at age eighty-seven,
at the time of first swearing-in; engaged as a writer and lecturer and resided
in Cartersville, Ga., until her death in Atlanta, Ga., January 24, 1930;
interment in Oak Hill Cemetery, Cartersville, Ga.
BibliographyDictionary of American Biography; Felton,
Rebecca L.
My Memories of Georgia Politics. Atlanta: Index Printing Co.,
1911; Talmadge, John E.
Rebecca Latimer Felton: Nine Stormy Decades. Athens:
University of Georgia Press, 1960.
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