Gladys Pyle

Gladys Pyle ( born October 4, 1890 in Huron, Beadle County, South Dakota, † March 14, 1989 ibid ) was an American politician ( Republican), who represented the state of South Dakota in the U.S. Senate. She was the first senator of their party.

Rise in South Dakota

Gladys Pyle attended the public schools and made 1911 graduate from Huron College. Subsequently, she worked as a high school teacher in Miller, Wessington, and Huron 1912-1918. 1923 started her political career with election to the House of Representatives from South Dakota, where she was employed until 1927; she became the first female Member of Parliament in their state. Between 1927 and 1931 they exercised the office of the Secretary of State in the Government of South Dakota. 1930 Pyle is applied for the Republican nomination for the gubernatorial election; only after repeated recount of the votes cast, it was clear their defeat by Warren Green, who later won the election for governor.

From 1931 to 1933 Gladys Pyle was a member of the State Securities Commission of South Dakota, after which it was active in the insurance industry. During this time she was active with her mother and two sisters, an advocate of women's suffrage. In her house numerous meetings of the local working group took place.

U.S. Senator

After the death of U.S. Senator Peter Norbeck on December 20, 1936 Gladys Pyle stepped election on to its mandate, which took place on 8 November 1938. In the meantime, Herbert E. Hitchcock had taken the seat interim basis. With 58.1 percent of the vote they won against Democrat John McCullen, after which she moved to Congress the following day. To the same day conducted election for the next term of office, they did not present himself; this decision with John Chandler Gurney also a Republican for themselves. Gurney then she pulled on January 3, 1939, in the Senate. She was there the first senator who did not initially appointed, but had been directly elected to office.

Two years later, Gladys Pyle was then the first woman to be allowed to stop at a nominating convention nomination speech: At the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia they called for Wendell Willkie. After she retired from politics: She continued her career continued in the insurance sector and also was active in the agricultural sector. From 1943 to 1957, she was still sitting on the Board of Charities and Corrections of their home country.

In March 1989, Gladys Pyle died 98 years old in her hometown of Huron. At this time she was the oldest living former member of the Senate. The house of her family, where she lived from 1894 to 1985, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is now a museum.