The Oklahoma Bar Journal September 2024

she thought we needed a different system of money and wanted the government to strike more money and do away with the Federal Reserve System. 50 She wanted the government to provide 20-year home mortgages at 2% or 3%. 51 Perhaps because it was an issue when she tried to run for lieutenant governor, but likely because she also championed women’s rights, Ms. Looney pushed for legislation that would allow women to serve in state offices. 52 Although the constitutional amendment was not adopted during her lifetime, Ms. Looney was instrumental in starting the drive to get women qualified for all state elective offices. 53 After two failed attempts to have the Constitution amended, in a 1942 general election, SQ 302 was adopted, which allowed women to run for state offices. 54 She was also actively involved in the campaign giving women the right to vote. 55 During her years as a senator, when the Senate was not in session, Ms. Looney worked for Co-Operative Publishing Co. of Guthrie as a traveling salesman of books and supplies used in public offices. 56 Mirabeau Lamar Cole Looney died Sept. 3, 1935, and the flags flew at half-staff over the state Capitol in her honor. Her casket was placed in state in the Capitol rotunda. 57 She was honored post humously at the annual statehood dinner of the Oklahoma Memorial Association on Nov. 16, 1935, along with Wiley Post and Will Rogers. 58 At the dinner, Camille Nixdorf Phelan's Oklahoma History Quilt was presented to the Oklahoma Historical Society with a panel depicting Ms. Looney as one of Oklahoma’s prominent women. 59 The quilt still hangs at the Oklahoma Historical Society.

Perhaps words from a Daily Oklahoman editorial best describe Ms. Looney: It is those who served with Ms. Lamar Looney in the Oklahoma Senate who can ren der the truest testimony to her complete devotion to the public interest. She had an unusually high conception of the duties of a legislator and she served her people with a fidelity that never faltered or weakened. Oklahoma has never had a public servant who tried harder to serve the peo ple well. She was never soiled by the sordid political currents which have soiled so many political offi cials. She was a womanly woman when she entered official life, and she was a womanly woman when she cast off her official cares. She was sufficient answer to the current assertion that a really fine woman had better let politics severely alone. Women who enter politics should study well the high example set by Ms. Looney. 60 After caring for and educating her children and watching them leave home, Ms. Looney once said, “I have time now to set a stone rolling for the good of humanity, if I can.” 61 And that she did. Individual Sources: Clarence Wharton Cole Mabel Looney Park Patricia Sellers Dennis 1. Clarence Wharton Cole, nephew of Lamar Looney, information furnished to author by Patricia Sellers Dennis, great-granddaughter of Lamar Looney, June 27, 2002. 2. Id. 3. Id. 4. Id. 5. Mabel Looney Park, daughter of Lamar Looney, information furnished to author by Ms. Dennis, June 27, 2002. 6. Cole. ENDNOTES

7. Park. 8. Id. 9. Cole. 10. “Hollis Woman First Ever to Sit in Senate Hearing Impeachment Charges against a Governor,” The Daily Oklahoman , Oct. 9, 1923, pg. 1. 11. Vivian V. Sturgeon, “Clerk of Harmon County Wins Senate Seat and Plans Political Future,” The Daily Oklahoman , Dec. 5, 1920, pg. 1. 12. Cole. 13. Id. 14. Sturgeon. 15. Cole. 22. Patricia Sellers Dennis, great-granddaughter of Lamar Looney, telephone conversation with author, Nov. 13, 2002. 23. “Hollis Woman.” 24. Id. 25. Id. 26. Id. 27. Id. 28. Dennis, telephone conversation with author. 29. Park. 30. Sturgeon. 31. Id. 32. “Hollis Woman.” 33. 95 Okla. Reports xxiv, Harlow Pub. Co., Okla. City, Okla., 1923. Listed on the “Roll of Attorneys” admitted from Nov. 1, 1923, to March 1, 1924. 34. Dennis, telephone conversation with author. 35. Park. 36. Dennis, telephone conversation with author. 37. Id. 16. Id. 17. Id. 18. “Hollis Woman.” 19. Id. 20. Cole. 21. “Hollis Woman.”

38. Cole. 39. Park. 40. Id. 41. Park. 42. Id. 43. Cole. 44. Id. 45. Sturgeon.

46. Id. 47. Id. 48. Cole.

49. Id. 50. Id. 51. Id. 52. Dennis, telephone conversation with author. 53. “Hollis Woman.” 54. Oklahoma Almanac: 1999-2000 , Okla. Dept. of Libraries, Okla. City, Okla., 1999, p. 666. 55. Park. 56. Cole. 57. Patricia Sellers Dennis, letter to author, Nov. 18, 2002. 58. Cole. 59. Dennis, telephone conversation with author. 60. Park. 61. Sturgeon.

Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff.

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THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL