Heritage

Jeannette Rankin has been all but deified by many historians, dazzled by the fact that she was the first woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress. And also because the Montana girl was a dedicated dove, casting her very first vote against America’s entry into World War I in 1917 with 50 of her House colleagues, and the only member of Congress to vote “No!” again on our entry into World War II.  

She remains so admired there are bronze statues of her at the Montana state capital in Helena and in Emancipation Hall in Washington, D.C. 

So why, you might ask, are there odd blanks in her personal history that still provide the basis for intriguing rumors nearly four decades after her death?  And why did Rankin choose to live the majority of her long life outside of her home state?  

The Missoula girl was born in 1880, the first of...