Mary Olszewski Kryszak was a schoolteacher, bookkeeper, librarian

Librarian

A librarian is an information professional trained in library and information science, which is the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs...

 and editor

Editor

The term editor may refer to:As a person who does editing:* Editor in chief, having final responsibility for a publication's operations and policies* Copy editing, making formatting changes and other improvements to text...

 from Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

 who served seven terms as a Democratic

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...

 member of the Wisconsin State Assembly

Wisconsin State Assembly

The Wisconsin State Assembly is the lower house of the Wisconsin Legislature. Together with the smaller Wisconsin Senate, the two constitute the legislative branch of the U.S. state of Wisconsin....

.

Background

Born in Milwaukee in 1876 as Mary Olszewski, she graduated from St. Mary's High School and the Spencerian Business College, and later studied at the University of Wisconsin Extension in Milwaukee. She worked as a schoolteacher, music teacher, bookkeeper, librarian, and newspaper writer, as well as as a housewife and mother of three children. From 1921 to 1939 she was managing editor of the weekly newspaper Glos Polek ([Polish] Women's Voice) of the Fraternal Polish Women's Alliance of America.

First term and national attention

In 1928, she unseated Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 Assemblyman Louis Polewczynski to represent the Eighth Milwaukee County district (the 8th and 14th wards

Wards of the United States

In the United States, a ward is an optional division of a city or town, especially an electoral district, for administrative and representative purposes...

 of the City of Milwaukee), taking 3,889 votes to 2,659 for Socialist

Socialist Party of America

The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...

 Nick Wroblewski and 2,239 for the incumbent Polewczynski. She already had three grown children (Leo, Rose and Wanda) "through school and with jobs of their own" when first elected to the Assembly in 1928. Although she had worked as a teacher, bookkeeper, assistant manager and newspaper editor before seeking office, stories in the national press stated that "Mrs. Kryszak 'takes in' hemstitching work at home when not engaged in lawmaking." She was assigned to the standing committee

Standing Committee

In the United States Congress, standing committees are permanent legislative panels established by the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate rules. . Because they have legislative jurisdiction, standing committees consider bills and issues and recommend measures for...

s on education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

 and on public welfare.