Georgia Neese Clark

Georgia Neese Clark

Georgia Neese Clark Gray (born January 27, 1898 in Richland , Kansas , † October 26, 1995 in Topeka , Kansas) was an American actress, banker, businesswoman and government official. She was the first woman to hold the post of Treasurer of the United States .

Career

Georgia Neese, daughter of Ella O'Sullivan (1866-1951) and Albert Neese (1860-1937), a farmer and businessman, was born in Shawnee County about three months before the outbreak of the Spanish-American War . Her father, a self-made man , had prospered years before she was born and was now a senior citizen in the town . He owned real estate and land there, including the bank and general store. The family also owned homes in Richland and near Topeka, where they attended high school and graduated in 1917 during World War I. Despite being a Presbyterian , she briefly attended Bethany College, an episcopal school for women in Topeka, before going to Washburn University . Neese studied economics there and sat in various study organizations. She was president of the theater company and a member of the Alpha Phi Upsilon branch . With the intention of becoming an actress, she then moved to New York City after graduating in 1921 and enrolled at the Franklin Sargent School of Dramatic Art .

Georgia Neese began her acting career with various stock companies . She worked as an actress from 1921 to 1931. During this time she lived in New York City, where she met Helen Hayes and Charlie Chaplin , traveled around the county, earning $ 500 a week. With the global economic crisis and the advent of sound film ( talkies ) her stage career ended, she returned home and took care of her ailing father. During her acting career, she married her first husband George M. Clark in 1929, from whom she divorced in the mid-1940s. She continued to be known as Georgia Neese Clark even after marrying her second husband. The marriage remained childless.

She began working at Richland State Bank as a cashier in 1935 , which was owned by her father. After her father's death in 1937, she became the owner and president of Richland State Bank. She also inherited the general store, a grain silo, a lumber yard, an insurance agency, many farms and other properties.

Signature of Georgia Neese Clark

Neese also had a political career. She belonged to the Democratic Party . In 1936 she was elected to the Democratic National Committee of Kansas - a position she held until 1964. She was an eloquent and popular party member as well as an early supporter of Harry S. Truman . As a result, President Truman nominated her as Treasurer of the United States and the US Senate confirmed her nomination. Neese held the post from June 21, 1949 to January 27, 1953.

In 1953, she married her second husband, Andrew J. "Andy" Gray (1912-1994), a journalist and press agent. The marriage remained childless.

The entire town of Richland was acquired by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in the late 1960s as part of the land that was slated for Clinton Lake . In 1974 the residents left the town and the remaining buildings were demolished shortly afterwards. After the project was announced, the government had a hard time getting landowners to sell their land. They were unsure whether to keep their property and were unable to sell it for relocation. Neese played a significant role in pushing Congress to raise funds for the project so the property owners could get on with their lives. She moved the Richland State Bank to Topeka and renamed it Capital City State Bank , which was later changed to Capital City Bank . At the end of the 20th century , the bank had opened several branches in the capital.

Neese died in Topeka in 1995 at the age of 97 and was then buried in Pleasant Hill Cemetery , which is on 87th and Ratner Road , 1.5 miles east of Berryton, Kansas.

Honors

The Georgia Neese Gray Performance Hall at the Topeka Performing Arts Center was named in her honor.

The Georgia Neese Gray Award is presented to Kansas citizens who have served in an electoral office at the local and / or county level and who have made outstanding service to their community in pursuing the principles of the Democratic Party of Kansas. This recognizes long and broad public service involvement in the pursuit of the city, county, and state. This award is the highest distinction that the Democratic Party of Kansas can bestow on its elected officials at the local and county levels.

On February 6, 2008, she was inducted into the Topeka Business Hall of Fame .

literature

• Jennie Chinn: The Kansas Journey , Gibbs Smith, 2005, ISBN 978-1-4236-2413-4 , p. 253
• Judith A. Leavitt: American Women Managers and Administrators , Greenwood Publishing Group, 1985, ISBN 978-0-313-23748-5 , p. 47
• Suzanne O'Dea Schenken and Suzanne O'Dea: From Suffrage to the Senate , ABC-CLIO, 1999, ISBN 978-0-87436-960-1 , p. 149
• Susan Ware: Notable American Women , Harvard University Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0-674-01488-6 , p. 124

Web links

Commons : Georgia Neese Clark  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Georgia Neese Clark in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} LIFE , Volume 26, No. 26, Time Inc., June 27, 1949, ISSN  0024-3019 , p. 65
2. ↑ Ella O'Sullivan Neese in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 15, 2015.
3. ^ Albert Neese in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved February 15, 2015.
4. ^ The Numismatist , Volume 121, Issues 1-6, American Numismatic Association, 2008, p. 29
5. ↑ Georgia Neese Clark on the Treasury.gov website
6. ↑ LIFE , Vol. 41, No. 9, Time Inc., Aug. 27, 1956, ISSN  0024-3019 , p. 69
7. ↑ Andrew J. "Andy" Gray in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved February 15, 2015.