Ruth Hamilton
{{Short description|American politician (1898–2008)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name = Ruth Hamilton
|birth_name = Ruth Jensen
|birth_date = {{birth date|1898|4|21}}
|birth_place = Alta, Iowa, U.S.
|death_date = {{death date and age|2008|1|18|1898|4|21}}
|death_place = Orlando, Florida, U.S.
|party = Republican
|spouse = Carter Hamilton
|occupation = Politician, Talk show host
|office = New Hampshire State Legislature
|term_start = 1964
|term_end = 1973
}}
Ruth Hamilton (née Jensen) (April 21, 1898 – January 18, 2008) was an American politician and centenarian. Hamilton served in the New Hampshire House of Representatives from 1964 to 1973, and she was one of the first woman talk radio show hosts in the country.
Biography
Hamilton was born in Alta, Iowa, to Peter and Hulda Jensen on April 21, 1898.{{cite report |last1=Rassbach |first1=Kristen |year=1996 |title=Ruth Hamilton Papers |url=http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/iwa/findingaids/html/HamiltonRuth.htm |publisher=University of Iowa |work=Iowa Women's Archives |access-date=March 27, 2015 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131001213849/http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/iwa/findingaids/html/HamiltonRuth.htm |type=Finding aid |archive-date=October 1, 2013 |language=en}} At a Fourth of July sandlot baseball game in 1920, she met Carter Hamilton.{{cite book |last1=Newman |first1=Barbara M. |last2=Newman |first2=Philip R. |title=Development Through Life: A Psychosocial Approach |year=2017 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=978-1-337-51499-6 |page=4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lD2dDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA4 |access-date=6 January 2020 |language=en}} After he was drafted to play professional baseball for the Cleveland Indians, the two got married a year later. Together they had an adopted son named Peter. Carter Hamilton died in 1949, and Ruth never remarried. She died aged 109, on January 18, 2008, in Orlando, Florida
Political career
First being elected in 1964, Hamilton was the first woman elected to the New Hampshire state legislature; a position she remained in until 1973. She was instrumental in passing laws that shut down orphanages and made littering a crime in that state.{{cite web |title=She Shared the Crown |url=http://www.allaboutolive.com.au/2008/07/31/another-inconvenient-truth/ |website=AllAboutOlive |access-date=6 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080827091952/http://www.allaboutolive.com.au/2008/07/31/another-inconvenient-truth/ |archive-date=27 August 2008 |language=en |date=31 July 2008 |url-status=dead}}{{better source needed|date=January 2020}}
She was one of America's first female radio talk-show hosts.
Hamilton was a world traveler well into her 90s and lectured all across the country. She became a member of Growing Bolder, a social networking service, while living in a Florida assisted living community.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20131001213849/http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/iwa/findingaids/html/HamiltonRuth.htm Archives of the Ruth Hamilton collection] at the University of Iowa
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Category:American women centenarians
Category:Women state legislators in New Hampshire
Category:American women bloggers
Category:Politicians from Orlando, Florida
Category:People from Buena Vista County, Iowa
Category:21st-century American women
Category:20th-century members of the New Hampshire General Court