Review of \u3ci\u3eGovernor Lady: The Life and Times of Nellie Tayloe Ross\u3c/i\u3e By Teva J. Scheer

Nellie Tayloe Ross, governor of Wyoming from January 5, 1925-January 3, 1927, was sworn into office fifteen days before Miriam Ferguson in Texas, a precedence that earned the former a lasting legacy as the nation\u27s first woman governor. The novelty of her status and her elegant charm won Ross the attention of her contemporaries. A series of autobiographical essays titled Governor Lady, published in 1927 by Good Housekeeping, fed the interests of an admiring public. A more recent tribute is Teva Scheer\u27s Governor Lady: The Life of Times of Nellie Tayloe Ross. How should history evaluate the nation\u27s first woman governor? asks the author. For despite Ross\u27s later accomplishments as an organizer for the national Democratic Party and director of the U.S. Mint, it is as Wyoming\u27s governor that she is most remembered. Scheer\u27s evaluation, reflecting extensive research, is an affirmative one that recognizes Ross\u27s historical significance and argues her continuing importance. Even as Ross extolled the virtues of hearth and home, after her husband\u27s death in 1924 she would seldom devote her own energies there. Ross\u27s story involves copious context, ranging from late nineteenth-century farming conditions to early twentieth-century monetary policy, from the nuances of Wyoming state politics through the years to postsuffrage feminism. Ross is described as a kindergarten teacher in Omaha and wife in Cheyenne, as gubernatorial candidate in the West and Chautauqua speaker in the East, as a political outsider among former suffragists and a Washington, D.C., insider during a succession of administrations. Explaining these shifts involves introducing a swelling cast of characters and conditions as much as portraying the woman herself. Scheer describes Ross as the Missouri-born child of former slave owners, accounting for her Southern manners and perhaps some racist comments revealed in Ross\u27s later correspondence. She connects Ross with the typical middle-class American woman of her era, in contrast to her college-educated contemporaries who also distinguished themselves as female firsts in the public sector