Rona Stevenson

{{Short description|New Zealand politician (1911–1988)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2014}}

{{Use New Zealand English|date=October 2014}}

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{{NZ parlbox

|start = {{NZ election link year|1963}}

|end = 1966

|term = 34th

|electorate = {{NZ electorate link|Taupo}}

|party = New Zealand National Party

}}

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|start = {{NZ election link year|1966}}

|end = 1969

|term = 35th

|electorate = Taupo

|party = New Zealand National Party

}}

{{NZ parlbox

|start = {{NZ election link year|1969}}

|end = 1972

|term = 36th

|electorate = Taupo

|party = New Zealand National Party

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Rona Miriel Stevenson {{post-nominals|country=NZL|MBE|JP}} (13 February 1911 – 4 September 1988) was a New Zealand politician of the National Party.

Born in Wellington in 1911, she served on the executives of the Women's Division of Federated Farmers, the YWCA and the Presbyterian Church.{{sfn|Gustafson|1986|p=344}}

She represented the Taupo electorate from 1963 to 1972, when she retired.{{sfn|Wilson|1985|p=236}} In the {{NZ election link|1966}}, she narrowly beat (by 258 votes) Labour's Barry Gustafson.{{sfn|Gustafson|1986|p=91}} The Taupo seat was a marginal one and the women's section of the National Party raised a large sum of money to ensure her re-election.{{Cite journal|last=Wallace|first=Sandra|date=1993|title=Members for Everywoman? The campaign promises of women parliamentary candidates|url=http://www.nzjh.auckland.ac.nz/docs/1993/NZJH_27_2_06.pdf|journal=NZJH|volume=27|issue=2|pages=187–98}} Also, in 1966 she also called for the names of women in 'so-called rape cases' to have their names published on the grounds that they may have been provocative, a move that may not have gained her support from women voters.

Stevenson was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to the community, in the 1976 Queen's Birthday Honours.{{London Gazette |issue=46921 |date=12 June 1976 |page=8057 |supp=3}} She died on 4 September 1988, and her ashes were buried at Taupo Public Cemetery.{{cite web |title=Deceased details |url=http://eservices.taupo.govt.nz/cemeteries/10360 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160214041904/http://eservices.taupo.govt.nz/cemeteries/10360 |archive-date=2016-02-14 |access-date=17 January 2015 |publisher=Taupō District Council}}