SC's First Female Senator was Kingstree High Graduate

As more and more women enter the political arena, it seems fitting to tell the story of South Carolina's first woman senator, who was born in the little Williamsburg County community of Gourdin on April 21, 1890. And although she represented Jasper County in the South Carolina Senate, every Williamsburg County citizen should be proud of Mary Gordon Ellis and her achievements.

Portrait of Mary Gordon Ellis which hangs in the chambers of the S.C. Senate.

One of 10 children of Alexander McKnight Gordon and Mary Lee Gamble Gordon, Mary Henry Gordon was always interested in public service. The Gordons moved to Kingstree when she was a young girl, and the story goes that one day when she was 13, she slipped away from the family home. Her father found her later that afternoon curled up on one of the back benches in the courtroom of the Williamsburg County Courthouse, listening intently to the arguments of the case then on trial.

She was one of seven in the 1909 graduating class of the Kingstree Graded and High School, and after teaching a year in Suttons, decided to further her education at Winthrop College, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1913. She then accepted a position as a teaching principal as a small school in Jasper County, and much to the surprise of many in Kingstree, she quietly married Junius Gather Ellis of Jasper County on January 18, 1914, at the home her parents had built on the corner of Main and Gordon streets in Kingstree in 1907.

The A.M. Gordon house on East Main Street has long since been torn down.

Williamsburg County Pictorial History

Mary Ellis continued to teach after her marriage and even after her three children–two daughters and a son–were born. This was not usual in the era in which she lived, but she had the backing of her husband, and she felt that the children of Jasper County needed someone with her drive to provide better education for them. And so, she ran for Superintendent of Education in Jasper County in 1924. After her election, it didn't take her long to begin to implement improvements to the school system. She closed many of the one-room school houses, consolidating them into larger schools. She insisted that teachers continue their own education so that they could keep up with new trends in teaching, much to the dismay of many of the teachers who felt they had adequately equipped children for life without extra courses themselves, thank you very much. She encouraged building a teacherage in the county so that the teachers she recruited from other areas would have a place to live. She also risked the ire of taxpayers when she insisted that students who lived at a distance from schools be bussed to school.

But that was just the beginning. It quickly became apparent that Mary Gordon Ellis believed that everyone should have access to a good education, no matter the color of their skin. When Rosenwald grant money became available to build schools for African-American children, she worked tirelessly to raise matching funds so that Jasper County could become a part of the project. She hired Mary Alice Miller, a college-educated African American to oversee the black schools in Jasper County, and insisted that those who dealt with her call her "Mrs. Miller," a thing unheard of at the time. She also insisted that African-American schools have new textbooks and not depend on the the hand-me-downs from white schools that were often tattered and missing pages. And she made it clear that black children had just as much right to be bussed to school as white children.

Bussing any children to school, but especially bussing African American students, angered many white tax-payers. At their insistence Superintendent of Education was changed from an elective to an appointed position. When Mary Gordon Ellis did not resign the position, she was fired by State Representative H. Klugh Purdy. Mary Ellis was a fighter, and she decided this was unacceptable. Within minutes of Purdy filing to run for State Senate in 1928, Mary Gordon Ellis filed to run for the same seat. Jasper County residents were aghast. No woman had ever attempted such a thing before. 

The campaign was a hard-fought contest. But, despite being female and entering uncharted territory, Mary Gordon Ellis found herself in a run-off with Purdy after the Democratic Primary. She won the run-off by 150 votes, with approximately 800 total votes cast in the race. Arriving in Columbia to begin serving as Jasper County's senator, she confronted a number of roadblocks, many about petty issues, such as whether or not she could wear a hat in the Senate chambers or what her colleagues in the Senate would call her. For her part, she was more interested in working on issues that directly affected Jasper County residents and on education. Her fellow senators eventually settled on calling her "Mary G." and quickly discovered, to the chagrin of many, that "Mary G. can't be bought."

Sen. Mary Gordon Ellis' tombstone in the Williamsburg Cemetery.

Her grit and determination at navigating uncharted territory make for an inspiring story, but it is even more inspiring when you learn that during the time she served as Superintendent of Education for Jasper County, she was diagnosed with uterine cancer. A lesser woman would have resigned and used her strength to fight the disease, but Mary Ellis continued to serve as Superintendent and as bookkeeper for the family's turpentine business while she endured long train rides to Florence for radiation treatments. She would often take a ledger and an adding machine with her on the train.

Therefore, all the while she was running for State Senate and while she served as State Senator, she was battling a life-threatening disease. By 1932, her health was deteriorating. Although she filed for re-election, she soon discovered that she would not be able to campaign. She lost the election to Purdy, and shortly afterward, she came home to Kingstree to spend the last 15 months of her life bedridden at the home of her two spinster sisters, Martha and Emma.

Her 13-year-old son, Jake, accompanied her to Kingstree. Her daughters, Beth and Mickey, in high school in Savannah, stayed with relatives, while her husband continued to run the family farm and turpentine business. They visited as much as they were able during her final months. In an April, 1970, article in The State, Eleanor Foxworth related a story about young Jake. He arrived at the door of a teacher who was tutoring him one afternoon and asked for extra help in studying for an exam he was to take that evening, reportedly saying, "Mama is dying, and she just has to know that I passed."

On September 9, 1934, Mary Gordon Ellis' battle ended. She is buried in the Gordon family plot at the Williamsburg Cemetery in Kingstree. Involved until the end, she cast an absentee ballot for the 1934 election on the day before her death.

Jasper County dragged its feet for many years before recognizing the contributions Sen. Ellis made to her adopted county, most often citing that she was not a native of the county as its excuse. Today, however, the Jasper County administration building in Ridgeland is named the Mary Gordon Ellis Administration Building. Likewise, the South Carolina Senate balked for many years before it finally hung her portrait in the Senate Chambers in March 1995. 

Lee Gordon Brockington, Mary Ellis' great-niece, speaks at the 

Williamsburgh Historical Museum last summer.

Lee Gordon Brockington, Senior Interpreter at Hobcaw Barony in Georgetown County, is a great-niece of Mary Gordon Ellis. "Growing up in a large family, I saw my relatives often, especially on visits to Kingstree where my three great aunts lived and had us for Sunday dinner at least once a month, " she says. "Oh, the stories told around their dining room table. Stories of individuals, events, births, deaths, and economic sacrifices. I am convinced that the reason I am an historian today is because of those stories of Williamsburg County history. My great aunts told us of their sister, Mary, who began teaching and saw the great need for education in rural South Carolina. Mary's recognition of how to make things happen, socially and economically, proved that a person can make a difference by seeing a need and filling that need through work, volunteerism, and a personal dedication to helping others. Through Mary's example to her siblings, her children, her nieces and nephews, the generations affected by her work as an educator, and especially as a humanitarian, she continues to influence many of us in the extended family. We feel drawn, by her example, to recognize needs in the community, to be involved in solving problems, and to strive to help others.  I like to think we are inspired by Mary Gordon Ellis."