Mary Strong Kinney

Mary Strong Kinney (April 9, 1859 – June 17, 1938) was an American politician from Oregon.

Early life and education

Mary Edna Strong was born on April 9, 1859, in Salem, Oregon, to Elisha Strong and Pherne Brown Strong.{{cite web |url= http://www.salempioneercemetery.org/records/pf_display_record.php?id=3683 |title= Mary Edna Kinney |publisher= Salem Pioneer Cemetery |accessdate= March 11, 2015}} Her great grandmother was Tabitha Moffatt Brown, the founder of what was to become Pacific University. She received her A.B. degree from Willamette University, as well as her A.M. degree in 1878.{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=uiUuAAAAYAAJ |pages= 37, 44 |title= A Semi-centennial Offering to the Members and Friends of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Salem, Oregon |year= 1884 |publisher= Swope & Taylor, Printers |location= Portland, Oregon |first= Elizabeth French McLench |last= Odell}}{{cite journal |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=yg5AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA51 |page= 51 |journal= Oregon Voter |title= Who's Who in the House: Mrs. W. S. Kinney |date= January 1, 1921 |volume= 24 |number=1}} She taught at the La Creole Academy in Dallas. She married William Sylvester Kinney, the youngest son of Robert Crouch Kinney, in 1881.{{cite journal |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=N8AUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA269 |publisher= Native Son Publishing Co. |location= Portland, Oregon |title= William Sylvester Kinney |journal= The Oregon Native Son |volume= 2 |number= 1|date= May 1900 |page= 269}} After her husband died in 1898, she managed his sawmill and raised four sons: Robert C., Dr. Alfred E., Dr. Kenneth W., William S.

Political career

In 1912, the year women in Oregon were granted suffrage, Kinney was the president of the Astoria Women's Suffrage Club. Kinney was elected as a Republican to represent Clatsop County in the Oregon House of Representatives in 1920, serving in the 1921 legislature as the only woman in either house that year. She fought for the right for women to serve on Oregon juries. In 1922, she was elected to the state senate, where she served in the 1923 and 1925 legislative sessions. Oregon Voter magazine noted in 1922 that "her business experience was so broad that she had a ready comprehension of legislative problems" and that she "bore herself with distinction and dignity".{{cite journal |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=hQRAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA489 |page= 489 |journal= Oregon Voter |title= Who's Who in the Senate: Mrs. W. S. Kinney |date= December 30, 1922 |volume= 31 |number=13}}

Death and legacy

Strong moved to Astoria in 1908.{{cite book|last1=Binheim|first1=Max|last2=Elvin|first2=Charles A|title=Women of the West; a series of biographical sketches of living eminent women in the eleven western states of the United States of America|date=1928|page=[https://archive.org/details/womenofwestserie00binh/page/160 160]|url=https://archive.org/details/womenofwestserie00binh|accessdate=8 August 2017}}{{PD-notice}} She died in Seaside, Oregon, on June 17, 1938, and was buried in the Salem Pioneer Cemetery. A liberty ship, the SS Mary E. Kinney was built in Portland and named in her honor on December 29, 1943.