Isabella Greenway | |
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Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona's at-large district |
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In office October 3, 1933 – January 3, 1937 |
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Preceded by | Lewis Douglas |
Succeeded by | John R. Murdock |
Personal details | |
Born |
Boone County, Kentucky, U.S. |
March 22, 1886
Died | December 18, 1953 Tucson, Arizona, U.S. |
(aged 67)
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse(s) | Robert Munro-Ferguson John Campbell Greenway Harry O. King |
Isabella Selmes Ferguson Greenway King (March 22, 1886 – December 18, 1953) is best known as the first U.S. congresswoman in Arizona history, and as the founder of the Arizona Inn of Tucson. During her life she was also noted as a one-time owner and operator of Los Angeles, Calif.-based Gilpin Air Lines, a speaker at the 1932 Democratic National Convention, and a bridesmaid at the wedding of Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Isabella Selmes was born March 22, 1886, the daughter of Tilden Russell Selmes and Martha "Patty" Macomb Flandrau. Tilden Selmes was general counsel for the Northern Pacific Railroad. Patty Flandrau was the daughter of Charles Eugene Flandrau, a Minnesota judge and politician; it was at the farm of Patty's maternal aunt in Kentucky that Isabella was born. Tilden Selmes was the co-owner of a ranch in North Dakota with Theodore Roosevelt, and Isabella spent her early life on that ranch. After the untimely death of her father in 1895, Isabella and her mother lived with various members of her mother's family in Kentucky, Minnesota, and New York. Isabella attended Miss Chapin's School in New York City, where she met and became lifelong friends with Roosevelt's niece, Eleanor.
In 1905, Isabella was one of Eleanor's bridesmaids when Eleanor married Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Shortly thereafter, while the Roosevelts were on their honeymoon, Isabella married Robert Munro-Ferguson, the younger brother of Ronald Munro-Furguson. Robert was a family friend of the Roosevelts, as well as one of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders. Robert and Isabella became the godparents of Franklin and Eleanor's only daughter, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.