Bertha Merrill Holt
| Bertha "B" Holt | |
|---|---|
| Member of the North Carolina House of Representatives from the 29th district |
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In office 1975–1994 |
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| Preceded by | John D. Long |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
August 16, 1916 Eufaula, Alabama |
| Died | June 18, 2010 (aged 93) Burlington, NC |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Clary Holt |
| Alma mater | Agnes Scott, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, University of Alabama |
Bertha Merrill "B" Holt (August 16, 1916 – June 18, 2010) was an American politician who represented Alamance and Rockingham counties in the North Carolina State House of Representatives from 1975 to 1993, where she championed North Carolina's failed attempt to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and led the successful effort to remove the exemption of husbands from the state's rape laws. In addition, she was active in the Episcopal Church and was a founding member of the Alamance Women's Political Caucus and the Woman's Resource Center.
Holt was born in Eufaula, Alabama, and was the oldest of her five sisters. She came from a long family line of lawyers: her great-grandfather, grandfather, and father were all practicing attorneys.
In 1938 she received her bachelor's degree in psychology from Agnes Scott College in Georgia and then became one of the first women to attend law school at the University of North Carolina before transferring to finish her law degree at the University of Alabama in 1941.
From Alabama Holt moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked for the Treasury and the Department of the Interior. and reconnected with Clary Holt whom she had met at University of North Carolina and would later marry. After World War II Bertha and Clary Holt moved to Burlington, North Carolina, and raised three children, a daughter, Harriet, and two sons, Merrill and Jefferson Holt.
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