Women in the Senate

Hattie Caraway in 1914 via Wikipedia

The United States held its most recent election two weeks ago today, and 2013 will boast the beginning of a term that includes the most females in Senate history with twenty. That news prompted a name post of course!

Actually, what started rolling this ball was a picture of all the women of the Senate a friend posted on Facebook. That made me wonder about their names. I looked it up on Wikipedia and found that one of the earliest women in the Senate was named Hattie. THAT is what inspired me to post, since Hattie is my new name crush.

Hattie Caraway was a Senator for the state of Arkansas from 1931 to 1945, and the first female Senator to be elected and serve a full term.  She was born Hattie Ophelia Wyatt in 1878, which is before the Social Security Administration started recording name popularity, but in 1880 Hattie was ranked #27 and fell from there. Hattie's parents were William Carroll and Lucy Mildred; she married Thaddeus Horatius Caraway in 1902 and had three sons Paul, Forrest and Robert. She first entered politics by taking over her husband's Senate seat after he died in 1931. She then won a special election in 1932 to complete his term, won reelection later that same year as well as in the 1938 election, and then lost the 1944 election. She never served with more than one other woman while in the Senate.

There have been 39 women in the Senate since 1789 and five new female Senators were elected last week. Here are their first names, middle names when found, and birth year (and anything else I found interesting):

Rebecca Ann 1835
Hattie Ophelia 1978
Rose 1892
Dixie 1882 (parents were Payton and Isabel)
Gladys Shields 1890 (Shields was her mother's maiden name)
Vera Sarah 1889
Margaret Madeline 1897
Eva 1892
Hazel Pearl 1888
Maurine 1907
Elaine Lucille 1929 (parents were Errol and Myrl)
Muriel Fay 1912
Maryon 1925
Nancy 1932 (her mother's name was Theo)
Paula 1927 (her father was Paul and mother was Leone)
Barbara Ann 1936
Jocelyn 1922 (her mother was Magdalena)
Dianne Emiel 1933
Barbara 1940
Patricia Lynn "Patty" 1950
Carol Elizabeth 1947
Kathryn Ann "Kay" 1943
Olympia Jean 1947 (her father immigrated from Greece)
Sheila 1945
Susan Margaret 1952
Mary Loretta 1955*
Blanche Meyers 1960
Maria 1958
Jean Anne 1933 (parents were Reginald and Alvina)
Hillary Diane 1947
Deborah Ann "Debbie" 1950
Lisa Ann 1957
Mary Elizabeth Alexander "Liddy" 1936
Amy Jean 1960
Claire Conner 1953
Cynthia Jeanne 1947
Janet Kay 1953 (her father was Josie Perry "Joe")
Kirsten Elizabeth 1966 (her mother was Polly Edwina)
Kelly 1968
Debra "Deb" 1951
Tammy Suzanne 1962
Mary Katherine "Heidi" 1955
Mazie Keiko 1947
Elizabeth 1949

*Mary's parents were Verna and Maurice "Moon" and she was one of nine kids: Mary, Mark, Melanie, Michelle, Mitchell, Madeleine, Martin, Melinda, and Maurice, Jr.

Maybe I'll do the House of Representatives next.  ;)

Besides Wikipedia, I also gathered information from the Women in Congress website.