Nellie Davis Tayloe Ross (1876 - 1977), Governor of Wyoming. Nellie Tayloe Ross was born November 29, 1876 near St. Joseph, Missouri. Her parents were James Wynn Tayloe, a merchant and gentleman farmer, and Elizabeth Blair Green. After her mother’s death in 1884 Tayloe Ross was raised by her father and three older brothers. She was educated in both public and private schools in Missouri and Kansas, graduating from a kindergarten teacher’s training school in Omaha in late 1890s.

She then taught kindergarten for two years. While visiting relatives in Tennessee, Ross met her future husband, a promising young attorney by the name of William Bradford Ross. After their marriage in Omaha, Nebraska in 1902, the couple moved to Cheyenne. They eventually had four sons, one of whom died in infancy.

In 1922, William Ross was elected Governor of Wyoming. Ross was a Democrat in a traditionally Republican state and a strong supporter of Prohibition and he often relied on his wife for counsel because she shared his views. William Ross died suddenly, on October 3, 1924, following complications from a ruptured appendix. His death precipitated the need for someone to stand in the upcoming general election to complete the last two years of his term. Special party conventions convened in Cheyenne in October, with the Republicans nominating Eugene J. Sullivan, a Casper attorney and the Democrats nominating the late governor’s widow.

Sullivan campaigned vigorously for the next three weeks, but Ross refused to do so. Announcing that she would not campaign, she declared "my candidacy is in the hands of my friends." Her only concession was to allow the appearance of a few small advertisements, in which she declared she would "be governed by the underlying principles by which he and I, side by side, have sought to conduct our lives during our twenty two years together." Ross defeated Sullivan by more that 8,000 votes to become the first, and to date only, women elected governor of Wyoming. She was also the first woman governor of any state in the Union. Although Ross and "Ma" Ferguson of Texas were both elected governors of their respective states on the same day, Ross was sworn into office before Ferguson.

As governor, Ross continued her husband’s progressive policies. She advocated tax fairness, improved workplace safety regulations to protect coal miners, and ratification of the Child Labor Amendment to the United States Constitution. In the face of mounting numbers of bank failures, she urged the House and Senate to pass banking regulations and adopt depositor protections. Ross also pushed for legislation to criminalize the purchase of liquor. The legislature adopted all of her programs in some form, with the exception of her attempt to strengthen Prohibition.

In 1926 her party nominated her for another four year term. Her opponent was the Republican nominee, Frank C. Emerson, state engineer and long time political adversary of both Ross and her late husband. Republicans charged that Ross was merely a figurehead, that her administration was run by a cabal which included Joseph O’Mahoney. Ross lost her re-election campaign, by a relatively small margin. Analysts have blamed her defeat a number of factors; economic conditions, her support of Prohibition, her failure to take a strong stand on the issue of women’s rights and the loss of the sympathy votes of Republican men and women, many of whom had crossed party lines in 1924. While she later acknowledged she had made an error by not campaigning more aggressively, Ross’s best response to her critics was to reply that every four years she voted the Democratic ticket but every day she voted for the release of the genius and ambition of the individual woman.

After her defeat, Ross, by now a polished public speaker, was in high demand on the Chatauqua circuit and traveled across the country. She also remained active in Democratic party politics, eventually serving as National Democratic Committee Chairman. Ross made the seconding speech for Al Smith at the Democratic National Convention in 1928 and campaigned on his behalf. In 1932, she directed the campaign for the women’s vote for Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1933, Ross was appointed Director of the U.S. Mint by President Roosevelt, becoming the first woman to hold that position. As such, Ross became the first woman to have her likeness imprinted on a mint metal and inscribed on the cornerstone of a government building; three such structures were constructed during her tenure, the gold depository at Fort Knox, the silver depository at West Point and the U.S. Mint in San Francisco. During her twenty year tenure as director Ross presided over the greatest expansion in mint production.

Nellie Tayloe Ross died in Washington D.C. on November 19, 1977 at the age of one hundred and one. After she lay in state in the rotunda of the State Capitol in Cheyenne, she was buried in Lake view Cemetery. Ross was survived by two of her sons, four grandchildren and six great grand children.

Nominations submitted by: William Dubois and Mabel Brown.