Distinctly Montana Magazine

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MONTANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY RESEARCH CENTER - PHOTOGRAPH ARCHIVES, HELENA Photos of the Miles City red-light district, thought to be documented by Robert Morrison, whose office was nearby at the turn of the century. The women who headed west in the late 1800s earned their living and independence by becoming entrepreneurs as well as prostitutes, the oldest and most profitable profession of all. Montana's "women of the night" led lives both grim and lively. nal win in 1916, she also became the first woman in the world elected to a national legislative body. Thus, she was beholden to no man. Wellington correctly predicted that his sister's vote against entry into World War I would kill her chances for a second term, but despite her unpopularity as a dove Jean- nette worked hard to promote better welfare for women and children as a Congresswoman. "I saw that if we were to have decent laws for children, sanitary jails, and safe food supplies, women would have to vote," she had maintained while campaigning for suf- frage. And, while most of the legislation she introduced was not passed during her term, it soon would be. This stint in Congress also produced evidence that at age 36, Rankin was still game for romance. Fiorello LaGuardia, a fellow freshman Congressman and even- tual mayor of New York, was so much taken by her that he made it clear to her family he would marry her if she would have him. And she apparently adored him. But married women in that day had few rights, and Jeannette was determined to control her own destiny. After losing a second bid for Congress, she moved to Georgia, and worked independently for peace organiza- tions and women's rights. She would have a second chance when Montana sent her to Congress again in 1940, only to lose reelection because of the unpopularity of her vote against declaring war in the wake of Pearl Harbor. Feeling unwelcome in Montana, she maintained her Geor- gia residency, while devoting herself to lobbying and travel. She lived long enough to see American thinking go her way. In 1968, she marched with 5,000 demonstrators to protest the war in Vietnam under the banner of the Jean- nette Rankin Peace Parade. But when she died a California resident five years later, she was as much of an enigma as she always had been, leaving only scattered, disorganized papers to accompany her legacy as an independent woman. www.distinctlymontana.com 77 Lael Morgan is the author of Wanton West: Madams, Money, Murder and the Wild Women of Montana's Frontier, which explores the lives of uniquely independent women during an era when most had few rights and virtually no real freedom.

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