Anna Lee Keys Worley

{{Short description|American politician}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Anna Lee Keys Worley

| image = Anne Lee Worley.jpg

| state_senate1 = Tennessee

| district1 = 2nd

| term_start1 = February 8, 1921

| term_end1 = January 1, 1923

| preceded1 = J. Parks Worley

| succeeded1 = D. A. Barger

| party = Democratic

| birth_name = Anna Lee Keys

| birth_date = {{birth date text|1872}}

| birth_place = Boswell, Indiana, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1961|05|03|1872|02|28}}

| death_place = Lafayette, Indiana, U.S.

| spouse = {{marriage|James Parks Worley|November 25, 1907|January 6, 1921|reason=died}}

| education =

}}

Anna Lee Keys Worley (1872 – May 2, 1961) was the first woman elected to the Tennessee Senate, representing Sullivan and Hawkins counties.{{cite web | title = Anna Lee Keys Worley | publisher = National Women's History Museum | url = https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/legislators/Tennessee.html | access-date = March 24, 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150906122215/https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/legislators/Tennessee.html | archive-date = September 6, 2015 | url-status = dead }}

She was born Anna Lee Keys to William T. and Sarah (née Evans) Keys in Boswell, Indiana, in 1872. She married Tennessee state representative J. Parks Worley on November 25, 1907.{{Cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/122755741/|title=First Woman State Senator in U.S. Dies|date=May 3, 1961|page=3|work=Journal & Courier|access-date=April 12, 2023|via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite web|title=Is First Woman Member of Any Southern Legislature|work=The Sunday Journal and Tribune|date=February 13, 1921|page=2A|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/122757041/|accessdate=April 12, 2023|via=Newspapers.com}} Parks was elevated to the state senate in 1913 and served until his death on January 6, 1921.

Worley was elected as a Democrat in the January 25, 1921, special election to succeed her husband and was sworn in on February 8.

One historian wrote that Worley "succeeded her antisuffragist husband in the Tennessee state senate and promptly used her powers to sponsor legislation to remove civil disabilities against Tennessee's women".{{cite book | last = Weatherford | first = Doris | title = Women in American Politics: History and Milestones | publisher = SAGE | year = 2012 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wW5wumFHKSEC&pg=PP1 | pages = 119| isbn = 9781608710072 }}{{rp|119}}

Worley left the Senate in 1923 after serving one term. She died on May 2, 1961, in Lafayette, Indiana.