Emily Newell Blair
Encyclopedia
Emily Newell Blair was an American writer
, suffragist, feminist, national Democratic Party political leader, and a founder of the League of Women Voters
.
, Jasper County, Missouri
on January 9, 1877 and died on August 3, 1951 in Alexandra
, Arlington County, Virginia
. She was a daughter of James Patton Newell and Anna Cynthia Gray.
As a child, Emily was an avid reader, and, from a remarkably young age, a talented writer.
She was a plump, assertive child and thought that she was not especially popular with her classmates or teachers. To compensate, she excelled in her schoolwork and was the leader of her siblings at home.
Her father, a native of Franklin, Venango County, Pennsylvania
as a young man, made a fortune in lumber and oil. Unfortunately, he explored for more oil and lost the fortune. He removed to Joplin, Missouri around 1874 with his lawyer's license. He was an investor in the local lead mine in Joplin. He also served as the County Clerk for Joplin. In 1883, he was elected as Jasper County Recorder of Deeds
, and the he moved his family to Carthage, fifteen miles away from Joplin. He had also served in the 30th Iowa Volunteer Infantry as a lieutenant in the Civil War.
Her mother, Anna Cynthia Gray, was a daughter of Elisha Burritt Gray and Margaretta Rachel McDowell. She was a great granddaughter of the Rev. Mr. Blackleach Burritt
and a descendant of Governor Thomas Welles
and Rev. John Lothropp. Her sister, Margaretta Josephine Gray was married to Henry Seymour Church and they were the parents of Katherine Gray Church who married Theodore Solomons
(1870–1947) an explorer and early member of the Sierra Club
.
Emily wrote the following about her mother: "When she moved from Franklin, Venango County, Pennsylvania to the mining camps in Joplin, Missouri she brought her books and her silver-bound writing desk. She kept up her French reading, made out a study course, and practiced daily on the hotel piano. She did such things until her death. At sixty, she was taking an extension course from the University of Chicago
, and she played the organ at church until her death. When she died at age seventy-two, her Spanish textbook was found open on the table."
and the University of Missouri
. She returned to Carthage upon her father’s death, before graduating, to help support and care for her brother and three sisters.
, Missouri and died at Alexandria, Arlington County, Virginia in 1964. He was a 1904 graduate of the George Washington University School of Law.
While attending law school, he worked as a secretary for Secretary of Labor and Commerce George B. Cortelyou
. During World War I, he served in France with the YMCA
. After the war, he returned to the U.S. and from 1919 to 1933, he practiced law in Joplin, Missouri. He was an active member of the Oxford Group
(known as Moral Re-Armament
from 1938 until 2001, and as Initiatives of Change
since then) founded by Dr. Frank N.D. Buchman.
He was appointed in 1933 as an Assistant U.S. Attorney General overseeing the United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division
under Attorney General
Homer Cummings. After serving as Assistant U.S. Attorney General, he served as a special assistant to the Attorney General for several years, and then went into private practice in Washington, D.C. with his son, Newell Blair. From 1947 until 1950, Mr. Blair served on a Regional Loyalty Board, and from 1950-53 served on the President's Loyalty Review Board, which reviewed federal agency loyalty board determinations regarding whether federal workers were pro-Communist. He retired in 1962.
They were the parents of two children: Their son Newell Blair, attended Yale University
and graduated from the University of the South in 1929. He received his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis
in 1932. He was a Washington lawyer and businessman who was the founder of three legal newsletters. Their daughter, Harriet Blair was the wife of Newton Melville Forsythe.
After United States’ entry into World War I, Blair became vice chair of the Missouri Woman’s Committee of the Council of Defense. When her husband went abroad for the YMCA, she accepted a position in the publicity department of the Women’s Committee of the Council of National Defense
, working for Ida M. Tarbell
and Anna Howard Shaw
. In 1920, Blair published its history, “The Women’s Committee, U.S. Council of National Defense: An Interpretive Report.”
She had been a founder of the League of Women Voters
, but realized that since gaining suffrage, women had lost political clout. Although they had the right to vote, they tended not to vote in blocks. Women must, Blair contended, organize and support strong women candidates for office who could lead the demand for equality. As a result, she organized more than 2,000 Democratic Women's Clubs around the country and built regional training programs for women party workers. She first served as secretary (1922–1926) and then later as president (1928–1929) of the Woman's National Democratic Club, and was the club’s principal founder.
She was the first women to attain a prominent position in Democratic party politics, serving as the national vice chairman of the Democratic Party (United States)
. She was first elected in 1922 and reelected in 1924 and served until 1928. During her tenure, she worked to elect women to public office.
During her tenure as national vice chairman, she was continually seeking Democratic support in Congress for issues in which women were interested. The United States Children's Bureau
created by President William Howard Taft
in 1912, was of interest to all women and worked for support for it from Democrats.
She started meeting with then Congressman, later Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn
of Texas to gather support. As a bachelor, she approached him with some trepidation but as they spoke he became greatly interested in the importance of The Children's Bureau and was very helpful with gathering Democratic support in Congress for the Bureau. Afterward, she went to him often for advice and assistance.
Years later she recalled that she ran into him at a Washington, D.C. restaurant shortly after the Roosevelt administration came into power, He came across the room to her table and asked her what she wanted in the way of an appointment. When she told him nothing, that already she had had all she wanted from politics-lots of fun, lots of work, and lots of fine friends-he said: "Well, if you change your mind and I can help, let me know, for if anyone is entitled to the fruits of victory you are that one." They remained close friends until her death in 1951.
She also served as a key player in Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1932 Presidential campaign. She helped secure the nomination for Roosevelt, and during the campaign she was one of four women sent by the DNC
on speaking tours across the country. She was one of handful of women rewarded for her contributions to his election, though she was not seeking a major patronage position for herself. A prolific writer, she was the author of several books, many short stories, and innumerable articles on politics. She also served from 1925 to 1934 as an Editor of Good Housekeeping
magazine.
Blair was active in securing positions for women in the New Deal. Appointed to the Consumers’ Advisory Board of the National Industrial Recovery Act
, she became its chairman in 1935. Her last public service came in 1942 when she was appointed chief of the women’s interest section of the War Department’s Bureau of Public Relations.
In the 1940s, the Washington Post regularly covered the Blairs’ parties, which often included Washington’s elite.
In her autobiography, she remembered how she was described by Senator Carter Glass
: "I was like the drink called Southern Comfort
which goes down so smooth and easily but has an awful kick afterwords". She retired from public life in 1944 after suffering a stroke.
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, suffragist, feminist, national Democratic Party political leader, and a founder of the League of Women Voters
League of Women Voters
The League of Women Voters is an American political organization founded in 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt during the last meeting of the National American Woman Suffrage Association approximately six months before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote...
.
Early life and ancestors
Emily Jane Newell Blair was born in JoplinJoplin, Missouri
Joplin is a city in southern Jasper County and northern Newton County in the southwestern corner of the US state of Missouri. Joplin is the largest city in Jasper County, though it is not the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 50,150...
, Jasper County, Missouri
Jasper County, Missouri
Jasper County is a county located in the US state of Missouri. It is included in the Joplin, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area. The 2010 total population of Jasper County was 117,404. It is the ninth most populous county in Missouri. Its county seat is Carthage, making it one of the few...
on January 9, 1877 and died on August 3, 1951 in Alexandra
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...
, Arlington County, Virginia
Arlington County, Virginia
Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The land that became Arlington was originally donated by Virginia to the United States government to form part of the new federal capital district. On February 27, 1801, the United States Congress organized the area as a subdivision of...
. She was a daughter of James Patton Newell and Anna Cynthia Gray.
As a child, Emily was an avid reader, and, from a remarkably young age, a talented writer.
She was a plump, assertive child and thought that she was not especially popular with her classmates or teachers. To compensate, she excelled in her schoolwork and was the leader of her siblings at home.
Her father, a native of Franklin, Venango County, Pennsylvania
Venango County, Pennsylvania
Venango County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the population was 54,984. Its county seat is Franklin.-History:Venango County was created on March 12, 1800 from parts of Allegheny and Lycoming Counties...
as a young man, made a fortune in lumber and oil. Unfortunately, he explored for more oil and lost the fortune. He removed to Joplin, Missouri around 1874 with his lawyer's license. He was an investor in the local lead mine in Joplin. He also served as the County Clerk for Joplin. In 1883, he was elected as Jasper County Recorder of Deeds
Recorder of deeds
Recorder of deeds is a government office tasked with maintaining public records and documents, especially records relating to real estate ownership that provide persons other than the owner of a property with real rights over that property.-Background:...
, and the he moved his family to Carthage, fifteen miles away from Joplin. He had also served in the 30th Iowa Volunteer Infantry as a lieutenant in the Civil War.
Her mother, Anna Cynthia Gray, was a daughter of Elisha Burritt Gray and Margaretta Rachel McDowell. She was a great granddaughter of the Rev. Mr. Blackleach Burritt
Blackleach Burritt
Blackleach Burritt was a preacher during the American Revolutionary War. During the American War of Independence, he was incarcerated in the Sugar House Prison-Early life and ancestors:...
and a descendant of Governor Thomas Welles
Thomas Welles
Thomas Welles is the only man in Connecticut's history to hold all four top offices: governor, deputy governor, treasurer, and secretary. In 1639, he was elected as the first treasurer of the Colony of Connecticut, and from 1640–1649 served as the colony's secretary...
and Rev. John Lothropp. Her sister, Margaretta Josephine Gray was married to Henry Seymour Church and they were the parents of Katherine Gray Church who married Theodore Solomons
Theodore Solomons
Theodore Seixas Solomons was an explorer and early member of the Sierra Club. From 1892 to 1897 he explored and named the Mount Goddard, Evolution Valley and Evolution Basin region in what is now northern Kings Canyon National Park in eastern California...
(1870–1947) an explorer and early member of the Sierra Club
Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president...
.
Emily wrote the following about her mother: "When she moved from Franklin, Venango County, Pennsylvania to the mining camps in Joplin, Missouri she brought her books and her silver-bound writing desk. She kept up her French reading, made out a study course, and practiced daily on the hotel piano. She did such things until her death. At sixty, she was taking an extension course from the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, and she played the organ at church until her death. When she died at age seventy-two, her Spanish textbook was found open on the table."
Education
She was an 1894 graduate of Carthage Senior High School (Carthage, Missouri). She was educated at Goucher CollegeGoucher College
Goucher College is a private, co-educational, liberal arts college located in the northern Baltimore suburb of Towson in unincorporated Baltimore County, Maryland, on a 287 acre campus. The school has approximately 1,475 undergraduate students studying in 31 majors and six interdisciplinary...
and the University of Missouri
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...
. She returned to Carthage upon her father’s death, before graduating, to help support and care for her brother and three sisters.
Marriage and family
She married on December 24, 1900 at Carthage, Jasper County, Missouri to Harry Wallace Blair, the son of John Blair and Mary Jane Plttenger. He was born on July 7, 1877 at MaryvilleMaryville, Missouri
Maryville is a city in Nodaway County, Missouri, United States. The population was 10,581 at the 2000 census. The town, organized on February 14, 1845, was named for Mrs. Mary Graham, wife of Amos Graham, then the county clerk. Mary was the first Caucasian woman to have lived within the boundaries...
, Missouri and died at Alexandria, Arlington County, Virginia in 1964. He was a 1904 graduate of the George Washington University School of Law.
While attending law school, he worked as a secretary for Secretary of Labor and Commerce George B. Cortelyou
George B. Cortelyou
George Bruce Cortelyou was an American Presidential Cabinet secretary of the early 20th century.-Early life:...
. During World War I, he served in France with the YMCA
YMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
. After the war, he returned to the U.S. and from 1919 to 1933, he practiced law in Joplin, Missouri. He was an active member of the Oxford Group
Oxford Group
The Oxford Group was a Christian movement that had a following in Europe, China, Africa, Australia, Scandinavia and America in the 1920s and 30s. It was initiated by an American Lutheran pastor, Frank Buchman, who was of Swiss descent...
(known as Moral Re-Armament
Moral Re-Armament
Moral Re-Armament was an international Christian moral and spiritual movement that, in 1938, developed from the American minister Frank Buchman's Oxford Group. Buchman, a Lutheran, headed MRA for 23 years, from 1938 until his death in 1961...
from 1938 until 2001, and as Initiatives of Change
Initiatives of Change
Initiatives of Change is a global organization dedicated to "building trust across the world's divides" of culture, nationality, belief, and background...
since then) founded by Dr. Frank N.D. Buchman.
He was appointed in 1933 as an Assistant U.S. Attorney General overseeing the United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division
United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division
The U.S. Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division is one of seven litigating components of the United States Department of Justice...
under Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
Homer Cummings. After serving as Assistant U.S. Attorney General, he served as a special assistant to the Attorney General for several years, and then went into private practice in Washington, D.C. with his son, Newell Blair. From 1947 until 1950, Mr. Blair served on a Regional Loyalty Board, and from 1950-53 served on the President's Loyalty Review Board, which reviewed federal agency loyalty board determinations regarding whether federal workers were pro-Communist. He retired in 1962.
They were the parents of two children: Their son Newell Blair, attended Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and graduated from the University of the South in 1929. He received his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...
in 1932. He was a Washington lawyer and businessman who was the founder of three legal newsletters. Their daughter, Harriet Blair was the wife of Newton Melville Forsythe.
Career
Blair became active in the local suffragist campaign. In 1914, she became publicity chair for the Missouri Equal Suffrage Association and the first editor of its monthly publication, “Missouri Woman.”After United States’ entry into World War I, Blair became vice chair of the Missouri Woman’s Committee of the Council of Defense. When her husband went abroad for the YMCA, she accepted a position in the publicity department of the Women’s Committee of the Council of National Defense
Council of National Defense
The Council of National Defense was a United States organization formed during World War I to coordinate resources and industry in support of the war effort, including the coordination of transportation, industrial and farm production, financial support for the war, and public...
, working for Ida M. Tarbell
Ida M. Tarbell
Ida Minerva Tarbell was an American teacher, author and journalist. She was known as one of the leading "muckrakers" of the progressive era, work known in modern times as "investigative journalism". She wrote many notable magazine series and biographies...
and Anna Howard Shaw
Anna Howard Shaw
Anna Howard Shaw was a leader of the women's suffrage movement in the United States. She was also a physician and the first ordained female Methodist minister in the United States. Her birthday is celebrated as Anna Howard Shaw Day, as an alternative to St. Valentine's Day.-Early Life:Shaw was...
. In 1920, Blair published its history, “The Women’s Committee, U.S. Council of National Defense: An Interpretive Report.”
She had been a founder of the League of Women Voters
League of Women Voters
The League of Women Voters is an American political organization founded in 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt during the last meeting of the National American Woman Suffrage Association approximately six months before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote...
, but realized that since gaining suffrage, women had lost political clout. Although they had the right to vote, they tended not to vote in blocks. Women must, Blair contended, organize and support strong women candidates for office who could lead the demand for equality. As a result, she organized more than 2,000 Democratic Women's Clubs around the country and built regional training programs for women party workers. She first served as secretary (1922–1926) and then later as president (1928–1929) of the Woman's National Democratic Club, and was the club’s principal founder.
She was the first women to attain a prominent position in Democratic party politics, serving as the national vice chairman of the Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
. She was first elected in 1922 and reelected in 1924 and served until 1928. During her tenure, she worked to elect women to public office.
During her tenure as national vice chairman, she was continually seeking Democratic support in Congress for issues in which women were interested. The United States Children's Bureau
United States Children's Bureau
The United States Children's Bureau is a federal agency organized under the United States Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families. Today, the bureau's operations involve improving child abuse prevention, foster care, and adoption...
created by President William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States...
in 1912, was of interest to all women and worked for support for it from Democrats.
She started meeting with then Congressman, later Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn
Sam Rayburn
Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn , often called "Mr. Sam," or "Mr. Democrat," was a Democratic lawmaker from Bonham, Texas, who served as the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives for seventeen years, the longest tenure in U.S. history.- Background :Rayburn was born in Roane County, Tennessee, and...
of Texas to gather support. As a bachelor, she approached him with some trepidation but as they spoke he became greatly interested in the importance of The Children's Bureau and was very helpful with gathering Democratic support in Congress for the Bureau. Afterward, she went to him often for advice and assistance.
Years later she recalled that she ran into him at a Washington, D.C. restaurant shortly after the Roosevelt administration came into power, He came across the room to her table and asked her what she wanted in the way of an appointment. When she told him nothing, that already she had had all she wanted from politics-lots of fun, lots of work, and lots of fine friends-he said: "Well, if you change your mind and I can help, let me know, for if anyone is entitled to the fruits of victory you are that one." They remained close friends until her death in 1951.
She also served as a key player in Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1932 Presidential campaign. She helped secure the nomination for Roosevelt, and during the campaign she was one of four women sent by the DNC
DNC
DNC may refer to:*Daigaku Nyūshi Center, a Japanese Independent Administrative Institution which administers the National Center Test for University Admissions...
on speaking tours across the country. She was one of handful of women rewarded for her contributions to his election, though she was not seeking a major patronage position for herself. A prolific writer, she was the author of several books, many short stories, and innumerable articles on politics. She also served from 1925 to 1934 as an Editor of Good Housekeeping
Good Housekeeping
Good Housekeeping is a women's magazine owned by the Hearst Corporation, featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, health as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good Housekeeping Seal," popularly known as the...
magazine.
Blair was active in securing positions for women in the New Deal. Appointed to the Consumers’ Advisory Board of the National Industrial Recovery Act
National Industrial Recovery Act
The National Industrial Recovery Act , officially known as the Act of June 16, 1933 The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), officially known as the Act of June 16, 1933 The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), officially known as the Act of June 16, 1933 (Ch. 90, 48 Stat. 195, formerly...
, she became its chairman in 1935. Her last public service came in 1942 when she was appointed chief of the women’s interest section of the War Department’s Bureau of Public Relations.
In the 1940s, the Washington Post regularly covered the Blairs’ parties, which often included Washington’s elite.
In her autobiography, she remembered how she was described by Senator Carter Glass
Carter Glass
Carter Glass was a newspaper publisher and politician from Lynchburg, Virginia. He served many years in Congress as a member of the Democratic Party. As House co-sponsor, he played a central role in the development of the 1913 Glass-Owen Act that created the Federal Reserve System. Glass...
: "I was like the drink called Southern Comfort
Southern Comfort
Southern Comfort is an American liqueur made from neutral spirits with fruit, spice and whiskey flavourings. The brand was originally created by bartender Martin Wilkes Heron in New Orleans in 1874, and is now owned by the Brown-Forman Corporation...
which goes down so smooth and easily but has an awful kick afterwords". She retired from public life in 1944 after suffering a stroke.