{{short description|American politician}} {{Infobox person | name = Mary Elliott Flanery | image = Photo of Mary Elliott Flanery.jpg | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Mary Elliott | birth_date = {{birth date|1867|4|27|mf=y}} | birth_place = Carter County, Kentucky | death_date = {{death date and age|1933|7|19|1867|4|27|mf=y}} | death_place = Catlettsburg, Kentucky | alma_mater = University of Kentucky | other_names = | occupation = Politician, Suffragist, Journalist | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = | spouse = {{marriage|William Flanery |1893}} | module = {{Infobox officeholder |embed=yes | state_house = Kentucky | district = 89th | term_start = {{start date|1922|01|01}} | predecessor = Daniel Vose | term_end = {{end date|1924|01|01}} | successor = Otto C. Gartin }} }}
'''Mary Elliott Flanery''' (April 27, 1867 – July 19, 1933) was an American Progressive Era social reformer, suffragist, politician, and journalist who is best remembered as the first woman elected to the Kentucky General Assembly and first woman elected to a state legislature south of the Mason–Dixon line.<ref name="The Kentucky Encyclopedia">{{cite book|last=Powers|first=James C.|title=The Kentucky Encyclopedia|editor=John E. Kleber|publisher=The University Press of Kentucky|location=Lexington, Kentucky|year=1992|pages=323–324|isbn=0-8131-1772-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8eFSK4o--M0C&q=Mary+Elliott+Flanery&pg=PA323|accessdate=11 March 2010}}</ref> Flanery was an advocate for equal rights for women, and actively worked to pass legislation that would give women the right to vote.<ref name="The Kentucky Encyclopedia"/><ref name="The National Women's History Museum">{{cite web |url=http://www.nwhm.org/legislators/Kentucky.html |title=Kentucky: Mary Elliott Flanery |year=2009 |work=Women Wielding Power: Pioneer Female State Legislators |publisher=The National Women's History Museum |accessdate=11 March 2010 |archive-date=25 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210425190704/http://www.nwhm.org/legislators/Kentucky.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Family and early life== Mary Elliott, daughter of Benjamin Franklin Elliott and Nancy (Kegley) Elliott, was born April 27, 1867, in a part of Carter County, Kentucky, that would later become Elliott County, Kentucky. After completing her schooling at University of Charleston in West Virginia and the University of Kentucky, she was a public school teacher.<ref name="The Kentucky Encyclopedia"/><ref name="The National Women's History Museum"/>
===Family=== Mary married William "Harvey" Flanery on June 28, 1893, and moved with him to Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Flanery family moved to Pikeville, Kentucky, in 1896 for Harvey to work for Northern Coal and Coke as an attorney.<ref name="The Kentucky Encyclopedia"/><ref name="The Collected Works of Effie Waller Smith">{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Effie Waller|title=The Collected Works of Effie Waller Smith|editor=David Deskins|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York, New York|year=1991|series=Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers|pages=[https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof00smit/page/3 3]–26 |isbn=0-19-506197-7|url=https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof00smit|url-access=registration|quote=mary elliott flanery.|accessdate=11 March 2010}}</ref>
Harvey and Mary had five children together; Sue, Merle, Dawn, Dew, and John.<ref name="The Kentucky Encyclopedia"/>
==Journalism and literary interests== While residing in Pikeville, Mary Flanery began a career as a writer. From 1904 until 1926, she worked as a journalist for the Ashland Daily Independent.<ref name="The Kentucky Encyclopedia"/> She wrote a column called "Impressions of Kentucky's Legislature," and she advocated for legislation as a means for social reform.
Flanery personally supported the publication of books by female African-American poet Effie Waller Smith, who lived and worked in Pike County, Kentucky.<ref name="The Collected Works of Effie Waller Smith"/><ref name="State's lost poet deserves honors">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=hfMrAAAAIBAJ&pg=2793,100506&dq=mary+elliott+flanery&hl=en|title=State's lost poet deserves honors|date=1 May 1989|work=Kentucky New Era |pages=7C|accessdate=12 March 2010|location=Hopkinsville, Kentucky}}</ref>
==Women's rights advocate== Flanery was a member of the Kentucky Equal Right Association, and actively worked for women to have the right to vote. She worked to improve the lives of women through reform of suffrage, marriage, and divorce laws.<ref name="The National Women's History Museum"/>
==Kentucky Legislator== After women gained suffrage in Kentucky, in 1921, Flanery ran as the Democratic party candidate for a seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives from the 89th District representing Boyd County, Kentucky, and won by a 250-vote margin. When Flanery took her seat in the lower house of the General Assembly in January 1922, she was the first female state legislator elected in Kentucky and the first female legislator elected south of the Mason–Dixon line.<ref name="The Kentucky Encyclopedia"/>
As an legislator, Flanery continued her advocacy for women's rights. She urged her colleagues to change legislation about marriage and divorce, and to implement the federal Shepard-Towner Maternity Act, a progressive era program that provided medical care to pregnant women and their children.<ref name="The National Women's History Museum"/>
Flanery's time in the General Assembly ended with an unsuccessful campaign for Secretary of State in 1923. She was defeated by another female trailblazer, Emma Guy Cromwell, who was the first female to hold a statewide office. Flanery stayed active in politics and was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1924.<ref name="The Kentucky Encyclopedia"/>
==Later life, death, and legacy== Flanery was an active member of the General Federation of Women's Clubs of Kentucky. She was a member of the Daughters of the Revolution and in 1926, she founded the John Milton Elliott chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.<ref name="Kentucky Women Remembered">{{cite web|url=http://women.ky.gov/about/kwr.htm |title=Kentucky Women Remembered |year=2010 |work=Events |publisher=Kentucky Commission on Women |accessdate=12 March 2010 |location=Frankfort, Kentucky |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311200600/http://women.ky.gov/about/kwr.htm |archivedate=11 March 2012 }}</ref>
===Death=== Flanery died at her residence, Elliot Hall, in Cattlettsburg on July 19, 1933, and was buried at Ashland Cemetery in Ashland, Kentucky.<ref name="The Kentucky Encyclopedia"/>
===Legacy=== After Flanery became the first woman elected to the Kentucky State legislature, she was honored by the Kentucky Historical Society as Kentucky's Most Prominent Female.<ref name="Kentucky Women Remembered"/> Mary Elliott Flanery is remembered today as a trailblazer for her work as a social reformer and her advocacy for women's rights through her work as a journalist and politician. In 1963, the Kentucky General Assembly honored Flanery by placing a bronze plaque at her desk in the Kentucky House of Representatives.<ref name="The Kentucky Encyclopedia"/> In 2005, Kentucky Commission on Women recognized her by adding her portrait to the "Kentucky Women Remembered" exhibit at the Kentucky State Capitol building.<ref name="Business First of Louisville">{{cite news|url=http://louisville.bizjournals.com/louisville/stories/2005/03/14/daily11.html|title=Three Kentucky women recognized for achievements|date=15 March 2005|work=Business First of Louisville|publisher=American City Business Journals|accessdate=11 March 2010}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Kentucky Women Remembered|state=collapsed}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Flanery, Mary Elliott}} Category:Suffragists from Kentucky Category:Democratic Party members of the Kentucky House of Representatives Category:People from Boyd County, Kentucky Category:1867 births Category:1933 deaths Category:Women state legislators in Kentucky Category:University of Charleston alumni Category:University of Kentucky alumni Category:People from Elliott County, Kentucky Category:American social reformers Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers Category:American women columnists Category:20th-century American women writers Category:20th-century American women politicians Category:20th-century members of the Kentucky General Assembly