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PAGE 8 ALL ABOUt MONtANA MONTANA SENIOR NEWS • FEBRUARY / MARCH 2020

Celebrating Women’s History Month

HISTORICAL WOMEN OF MONTANA

naval welfare for the Red Cross during
BY KAtHLEEN MULROY World War II and as a member-at-large of
the U.S. Commission to UNESCO. In March,
Throughout Montana’s history, 1991 she received an Honorary Academy
many strong, intelligent, active, and Award in recognition of her life’s work
interesting women have contributed both onscreen and off. Loy died in 1993
to the Big Sky Country. In celebration at the age of 88.
of Women’s History Month, here are MINNIE tWO SHOES
three Montana women who have made Minnie Two Shoes was a journalist,
a difference. a Native American rights advocate,
JEANNEttE RANKIN and the mother of five. A Sioux, she
Politician Jeannette Rankin was born was born in 1950 on the Fort Peck
on a ranch near Missoula in 1880. She Reservation in Montana.
attended the University of Montana, after Two Shoes was a publicist for the
which she moved to New York to study American Indian Movement from 1970
social work. Jeannette Pickering Rankin (1880-1973), a member of the to 76. She earned her bachelor’s degree
House of Representatives who was elected in 1916 as the
Rankin soon became an organizer for first woman to serve in the U.S. Congress. Source: Flickr in Community Development from Native
the National American Woman Suffrage Commons project, 2015. American Education Service College in
Association, assisting in several states’ legislature honored Jeannette Rankin by Fort Peck in 1983. Two Shoes helped found
suffrage campaigns. In 1914, Rankin having her statue placed in the U.S. Capitol’s the Native American Press Association in
returned to Montana to help lead her state’s Statuary Hall. 1984, which became the Native American
suffrage movement to victory. MYRNA LOY Journalists Association in 1990.
Two years later, she became the Myrna Loy was born in Helena, Mont., She co-founded the Wolf Point
first woman elected to the U.S. House of in 1905. She was raised in Radersburg Traditional Women’s Society and edited two
Representatives as a Progressive Republican. during early childhood, before moving magazines, Native Peoples and Aboriginal
Rankin supported legislation that sought to Los Angeles with her mother. Trained Voices. Two Shoes studied at the University
to provide for maternal and infant health as a dancer, Loy devoted herself to an of Missouri Columbia School of Journalism
care and used her position to publicize the acting career following a few minor roles from 1987 to 1990 and was a co-founder of
grievances of Montana miners and farmers. in silent films. the Native American Student Association.
Defeated in a bid for the Senate in 1918, Her role as Nora Charles in the 1934 She was a contributing writer for News
Rankin spent the next 22 years working for movie The Thin Man helped elevate her from Indian Country and a columnist for Red
peace organizations, such as the Women’s reputation as a versatile actress, and Road Home.
International League for Peace and Freedom, she reprised the part in five more Thin She is often cited as being instru-
the Women’s Peace Union, and the National Man movies. Loy’s career began to slow mental in uncovering information on
Council for the Prevention of War. in the 1940s, although she appeared in the 1975 murder of AIM activist Annie
She also became an active grassroots several films between 1950 and 1981, Mae Aquash.
organizer for the Georgia Peace Society. In including a lead role in the hit comedy Two Shoes died of cancer in 2010. MSN
1940, at the age of 60, she once again won Cheaper by the Dozen (1950). In 1981, she
election as a Republican from Montana retired from acting.
to the U.S. House of Representatives. She Besides her movie career, Loy served
died in 1973, at 93. In 1983, the Montana as assistant to the director of military and

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