Edith Wilmans

Edith Eunice Therrel Wilmans (December 21, 1882 – March 21, 1966) was a Texas lawyer and politician. She was the first woman elected to the Texas State Legislature, in 1922.

Edith Eunice Therrel was a native of Lake Providence, Louisiana, the daughter of Benjamin Franklin and Mary Elizabeth Grier Therrel. With her parents she moved to Dallas, Texas in 1885, and she attended public schools there. On Christmas Day 1900 she married Jacob Hall Wilmans, with whom she would have three daughters.

Wilmans was quite active in Dallas civic affairs; in 1914 she assisted in the organization of the Dallas Equal Suffrage Association, and later helped create the Dallas Housewives League and the Democratic Women of Dallas County; she also served as president of the Democratic Women's Association of Texas. Known as well for her work in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the League of Business and Professional Women. she was also active in her daughters' Parent-Teacher Association, and in her church as well; she also was a member of two anti--communist groups, Minute Women of the U.S.A. and the Paul Revere Club. Interested in learning more about legal matters and improving women's status, she studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1918.

Wilmans was elected to the Thirty-eighth Texas Legislature in 1922; representing District 50, of Dallas County. She was one of eight women who ran for the legislature that year, but was the only one to win her race, a feat made more impressive because she unseated a long-time incumbent, John E. Davis of Mesquite. In her victory she is said to have been assisted by the Ku Klux Klan, although her position on the Klan's existence remains unclear. She took her seat in 1923, the same year her husband died. While in Austin she supported legislation for the support and care of children, and pressed for establishment of the Dallas County District Court of Domestic Relations; she also championed a bill which would require compulsory education for all Texas children under the age of fourteen. Only one of her five bills passed; two passed the House were killed in the Senate, and one made it out of committee but was not considered by the House as a whole. She served on a number of committees, including Common Carriers; Counties; Education, Oil, Gas and Mining; and Public Health. She was also the first woman to preside as Speaker of the House, although it appears to have been an honorary appointment only.

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