Women’s History Month: Rebecca Latimer Felton quite a character

 

Rebecca Latimer Felton

 

It is fitting that during the month of March (Women’s History Month), we consider one of the most significant, yet least well-known women in GA: Woman’s History Month started in 1980 with the mission of “recognize and celebrate the diverse and historic accomplishments of women.”

Rebecca Latimer Felton. Who would have guessed that this woman, born in 1835, would have become the first woman senator of the United States in 1922 – at the age of 87? And even worse, who could have known then that this very old lady would also be Georgia’s last woman senator? Rebecca Latimer Felton, once a Southern Belle, became a politician forty-seven years before she could vote. And if one were trying to determine which Georgia woman led the most interesting and tumultuous life, Felton would certainly be in the running. Some claim that Felton’s life is in many ways the life of Georgia before, during and after the Civil War. Having researched her life for four years, I now know that Felton’s good friend Margaret Mitchell based her fictional character, Scarlett O’Hara, upon the real life of Rebecca Latimer Felton. For more information, read  Loosening Corsets: The Heroic Life of Georgia’s Feisty Mrs. Felton; First Woman Senator of the United States, by A. Louise Staman (available on Amazon, at Tiger Iron Press, and in most book stores).