First Woman To Serve In Iowa Legislature

PENDRAY

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 5/3/2011 at 07:24:24

Maquoketa Community Press, November 25, 1958

MRS. PENDRAY DIES SUNDAY IN MT. PLEASANT

First Woman to Serve in the Iowa Legislature

Mrs. Carolyn Pendray, former Maquoketan and the first woman to serve in the Iowa legislature, died Sunday in a Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, nursing home. She had suffered a stroke in August and hadn’t regained her health.

Funeral services and burial will be in Mt. Pleasant Tuesday. Mrs. Pendray, a Democrat, was elected to the Iowa House in 1928 from Jackson County. She was re-elected in 1930 and in 1932 became the only woman to serve in both the house and senate. Her legislature career ended in 1936 when she decided against seeking re-election.

Her husband, the late William C. Pendray, at one time was Mayor of Maquoketa, and manager of the Grahams store in Maquoketa. Mrs. Pendray sold her home in Maquoketa and moved back to her native Mt. Pleasant in 1951. She spent 20 years teaching in the Mt. Pleasant schools, including seven years as Henry county superintendent of schools.