ARKANSAS A-Z: Dorathy Allen was the first female state senator (original) (raw)

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Dorathy N. McDonald Allen was the first woman to serve in the Arkansas Senate, serving from 1964 to 1974 in the 64th through 69th General Assemblies. She was elected in 1964 to fill the unexpired term of her husband, Sen. Tom Allen, after his death in 1963. She was re-elected in 1966 and 1970 without opposition.

Dorathy N. McDonald was born in Helena on March 10, 1910, to Dora Barnes McDonald and Jack McDonald. Her mother was a homemaker, and her father was a lumberman and sawmill owner with one of the largest lumber operations in the area. Her mother died in 1928, the same year McDonald graduated from high school. Due to the financial state of her family, college became impossible, so she pursued secretarial courses at Macon and Andrews Business College in Memphis.

Portrait of Dorathy N. McDonald Allen; 1977 (Courtesy of the Museum of American History, Cabot Public Schools)

In 1930, McDonald was working as a clerk at a dry goods store when she married Ray Smith and moved to West Helena. She soon divorced and moved back to Helena. McDonald became society editor of the Helena World, and she later worked in the news and advertising departments of the East Arkansas Record.

She married Thomas Jacob Allen in May 1941 and moved to Brinkley, where they owned and published the Brinkley weekly newspaper the Citizen. The couple also published the Monroe County Sun and the Woodruff County Democrat.

In 1944, Allen became affiliated with the Miss Arkansas Pageant, then an amateur affair, and the next year she became the director of the pageant and led a program to professionalize it. Her leadership in that area resulted in her being dubbed the "Mother of the Miss Arkansas Pageant." (This year's Miss Arkansas pageant events begin Tuesday and run through the finals on Saturday in Little Rock.)

Also in 1944, Allen's husband ran for the Arkansas House of Representatives and later became a state senator, a post he held until his death from cancer on Oct. 31, 1963; they had no children.

On July 28, 1964, Allen ran in a special election as a Democrat for the Senate seat in District 26 -- which included Monroe, Lee, Arkansas, and Phillips counties -- that was made vacant by her husband's death. She won with 52.2% of the vote over opponents Lester Graves and Forrest E. Long to become the first woman ever to serve in the Arkansas Senate. She was re-elected without opposition in 1966 and 1970, serving from 1964 to 1974.

Allen was appointed to the Agriculture Committee and elected to the Legislative Council in 1965. In her first term, she sponsored Senate Concurrent Resolution 11 encouraging physicians to test newborns for Phenylketonuria (PKU), a genetic disorder related to neurological problems and intellectual disabilities, and directing the Legislative Council to consider establishing a statewide program. Allen also sponsored legislation to create a board for the Arkansas Law Enforcement Training Academy (Act 172 of 1965).

During the 1967 session, Allen was considered part of the "Old Guard" legislators who had supported former Gov. Orval Faubus and were less likely to endorse the policies advanced by Republican Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller. She sponsored and passed legislation to exempt mussel shells from the severance tax, supporting the mother-of-pearl button industry still active on the lower White River in her district.

In 1969, Allen sponsored legislation authorizing school districts and colleges to create early-childhood-development demonstration projects. Her bill directing the state Publicity and Parks Commission to develop a plan to create a Louisiana Purchase State Park passed but was vetoed by Rockefeller.

During the 1971 session, Allen was appointed to the Southern Regional Education Board. In the Senate, she chaired the Charitable Institutions committee and was vice chair of the Roads and Highways committee. She sponsored a non-binding resolution to end the Highway Commission's toll charges over the U.S. 49 bridge at Helena, and the tolls ended soon afterward. That same year, she became chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Legislative Affairs.

Allen voted against raising the maximum weekly payment awards under Workers Compensation and against the merger of Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical, and Normal (AM&N) University -- now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) -- with the University of Arkansas system. Allen was chair of the Aging, Children, Youth, and Legislative Affairs committee and was a member of the Public Health, Welfare, and Labor committee in 1973. Often, she was part of the Senate opposition to administration bills proposed by Gov. Dale Bumpers, and she supported the maneuvers of Sen. Guy "Mutt" Jones to prevent ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.

In 1974, Allen decided not to run for re-election. About an hour after the ticket closed that year for the Democratic Party primaries, a fire destroyed the second floor of her newspaper, the Citizen.

Allen worked as a Senate clerk from 1975 to 1976 and remained active in her church and in associations until her death on May 12, 1990. -- Lindsley Armstrong Smith

This story is taken from the online Encyclopedia of Arkansas, a project of the Central Arkansas Library System. Visit the site at encyclopediaofarkansas.net.