This is a guest post by Valerie Haeder, a reference librarian in the Serial and Government Publications Division.
South Dakota’s Gladys Pyle was the first woman elected to the South Dakota House and South Dakota’s first female U.S. Senator. But she wouldn’t have cared about such distinctions as much as she did about getting things done.
A native of Huron, South Dakota, Ms. Pyle graduated from Huron College and went on to be a teacher and school administrator.
For most of her life, Ms. Pyle lived in her family’s grand, Queen Anne style home that still stands in Huron as a museum and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Never married and without children, Ms. Pyle cared for her elderly mother, downsizing their living area and converting a small closet into a galley kitchen. The quarters were so tight it’s a wonder nothing caught fire.
Years after she wrapped up life in public service, she explained her reason for entering politics: “Why not?” As with so many frontierswomen who pioneered “firsts,” Gladys Pyle wasn’t interested in making headlines; she was interested in the common good. And allowing women to do what men do advanced the common good. She declared, “Women have as much right for a trial by their peers as men. Women have as much right to run for the legislature as men. If my brother can hang by his knees on a trapeze, so can I” (Kinyon, Jeannette and Jean Walz. The Incredible Gladys Pyle. Vermillion: Dakota Press, 1985. p.37).
And with such spirit and determination, she launched campaigns for various political offices in South Dakota. As an “ultra modern young woman,” she ran an unsuccessful bid for governor at which point she departed from politics to focus on overseeing her family home. But politics drew her back.
While her time in Washington was short—she was elected to complete the late Senator Peter Norbeck’s term—Senator Pyle made quite a mark in Washington, gaining attention and stature in the media. Many newspapers of the day were charmed by Senator Pyle’s can-do, independent attitude.
When her senatorial career ended, Senator Pyle continued in public service. She returned to South Dakota, and in 1940 she was the first woman to nominate a presidential candidate at a national political convention. Later that decade in 1947, Ms. Pyle served with five other women on the South Dakota jury that first allowed women jurors. She fought for that right back in 1922 while a member of the South Dakota state legislature.
My interest in Gladys Pyle stems from the Forum of Famous Faces school project in which fifth and sixth grade students from across the Rapid City, South Dakota, elementary schools participated. I researched and portrayed Gladys Pyle. My father drove me across South Dakota during the cold, bleak February of 1989 to interview Senator Pyle, who at 98 was frail and alone in a Huron nursing home. Ms. Pyle was hunched over but delighted to sign in shaky cursive a copy of The Incredible Gladys Pyle, a book by two South Dakota women who wanted to document Ms. Pyle’s trailblazing life. Two weeks after our visit Gladys Pyle died.
Comments (3)
Great article and personal connection. Thank you.
U S Senator Gladys Pyle was a female politician far ahead of her times, who set numerous national and state female electoral firsts, including about a dozen U S Senate female electoral firsts. Here are Pyle’s five most significant national firsts, which indisputably reflect Pyle reigned as the premiere national female electoral trailblazing politician during the difficult to navigate first score of years post-ratification of the Suffrage Amendment, with a vote getting prowess second to none.
1. First female nationally to initially enter the U S Senate through election (1938) and first to do so in her own right at the age of 48. She ran 5.6% ahead of the second highest vote getter for any statewide office in her state in that election. Ten years later, Margaret Case Smith became the second woman nationally to initially enter the U S Senate through election (1948). No other female South Dakotan has ever been elected to the U S Senate to this date (2024).
2. First female nationally to run for both governor (1930, won her party primary but was denied the nomination by her state party convention, which was perceived to be solely due to her sex by South Dakota citizenry and press) and U S Senate (1938, elected) and first to do so in her own right. (Nationally, Jeanne Shaheen finally beat this record 70 years later by winning both offices in 2008 after being the first to replicate Pyle’s feat in 2002, or 64 years after Gladys set that record. A second female did not win a South Dakota gubernatorial primary for 84 years in 2014 and the first to be elected governor did not occur until 88 years later in 2018.
3. First female nationally to be elected to both a state constitutional legislative office (1922) and a state constitutional executive office (1926) in any state and first to do so in her own right. Only female nationally to be both the first elected to a state constitutional legislative office and the first to be elected to a state constitutional executive office in any state. 41 other women were elected to a state constitutional executive office through the 1926 general election and only Pyle was also elected to a state constitutional legislative office through that election or, for that matter, elected to any other state or federal office through that election.
4. First female nationally to receive more votes cast than had been received by any other statewide candidate since statehood in any state (1928). (Office of President is considered to be a nationwide office.) However, some might consider this national female electoral first interesting because Kate Barnard’s 1907 election to Commissioner of Charities and Corrections was the first general election held by the soon to be admitted State of Oklahoma. Barnard achieved the highest total vote cast (by 138 votes) for any statewide candidate in this inaugural State of Oklahoma general election. However, there were no prior State of Oklahoma general elections results, with which to compare her 1907 vote total from this historical perspective. Barnard nevertheless received the most total votes cast of any statewide candidate in the 1907 Oklahoma general election, which is a national first female electoral record in itself.
5. First female nationally to receive both the highest percentage of the vote received of all statewide candidates and most total votes received of all statewide candidates in a general election (1928) in any state since ratification of the Suffrage Amendment. Mabel Bassett replicated Pyle’s record two years later (OK 1930). The first South Dakota woman, Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, did not replicate this feat for 80 years (2008). Kate Barnard was the first female in history to set this record nationally in the 1907 Oklahoma general election, with Gladys being the second woman to achieve that feat (1928). Barnard repeated her feat in her 1910 re-election, with Gladys replicating that feat in her U S Senate election (1938). Gladys was the only female to achieve that feat twice during the first score of years after ratification of the Suffrage Amendment (1928 & 1938).
The second record set forth in my previous comment is incorrectly worded. Two other females (Hazel Abel of NE and Joan Finney of KS) ran for both U S Senator and Governor after Pyle and prior to Senator Shaheen and, like Pyle, won one of the offices but, unlike Pyle, lost their respective primaries for the other office. Accordingly, No 2. should be reworded as indicated below. Interestingly, Minnie Fisher Cunningham, who unsuccessfully ran for both U. S. Senate (1928 TX, lost in primary) and governorship (1944 TX, lost in primary) in her own right, started her attempt two years before Gladys but did not complete her attempt until six years after Gladys completed her runs for both offices.
2. First female nationally to run for both governor (1930, won her party primary but was denied the nomination by her state party convention, which was perceived to be solely due to her sex by South Dakota citizenry and press) and U S Senate (1938, elected) and first to do so in her own right. Nationally, Jeanne Shaheen finally beat this record 70 years later by winning both offices in 2008 after being the first to replicate Pyle’s feat (of winning the general election for one of the offices and winning the party primary for the other office) in 2002, or 64 years after Gladys set that record. A second female did not win a South Dakota gubernatorial primary for 84 years in 2014 and the first to be elected governor did not occur until 88 years later in 2018.