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Inspiring woman: Rebecca Latimer Felton

In 1922 at the age of 87, Rebecca Latimer Felton of Cartersville was sworn in as the junior U.S. Senator from Georgia. She was the first woman ever to serve in the Senate.

Upon taking her oath of office, she predicted, "When the women of the country come in and sit with you ... I pledge to you that you will get integrity of purpose, you will get exalted patriotism, and you will get unstinted usefulness."

Senator Felton's service in the nation's capitol was for just one day, but it capped a career of activism around women’s right to vote, prison reform, and education. In a speech that same year reflecting on political cartoons about her big day, she said that a woman Senator "is still a sort of political joke…but the trail has been blazed!"

Although 33 women have followed that trail to the U.S. Senate and 14 women currently serve as Senators, no other woman from Georgia has yet been elected to the U.S. Senate.