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It was 88 years ago today that the nineteenth amendment to the United States Constitution became law, giving women the right to vote. KSMU's Jennifer Moore met up with one Springfield woman who was not only alive then, but who can also still recall in great detail that historical day.
97-Year-Old Dorothy Busse remembers her Aunt Pheobe dressing up in 20s-era hats adorned with feathers and marching off to suffragist meetings.
Busse was a nine-year-old girl growing up in Syracuse, New York. As a child, she witnessed the women in her community becoming more and more organized in their push to win the right to vote.
She also recalls hearing how they were discredited by some, and ridiculed by others.
Eventually, women began meeting with President Woodrow Wilson, and picketing at the White House. The movement was gaining momentum nationwide.
Finally, on August 26, 1920, the United States Secretary of State signed the Anthony Amendment into law, just in time for women to vote in the fall presidential elections.
Busse still remembers the jubilation that hit the streets as a result.
When she became old enough to vote, Busse cast her first ballot in the 1928 presidential election...for none other than Herbert Hoover.
She says one emotion comes over her when she thinks of the role the women in her family played in the suffragist movement: it's pride.
For KSMU News, I'm Jennifer Moore