Antoinette Kinney

Antoinette Brown Kinney (1862–1945) was an American politician and community leader who served in the Utah State Senate.

She spent her childhood in New York and Tennessee before attending the University of Michigan as a young woman. She then moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, and became involved with a number of local, state, and national organizations, such as the Utah State Historical Society and General Federation of Women's Clubs, frequently occupying leadership positions. In 1893, she founded a state chapter of the Federation of Women's Clubs and served as its president. She later served as chairman and president of the League of Women Voters of Utah. In 1921, Kinney was elected to public office as a state senator representing the sixth district of Utah. She was "the only woman senator in the 1923 [Utah] legislature". to Joseph A. Brown, a lawyer, and Mary J. Daniels. She spent her childhood years in Rochester, New York. In 1863, when Kinney was a little over a year old, her father left the family and moved to Kansas. Her mother, in response, moved the family to Tennessee, where Kinney spent her teenage years. In 1878, her two older sisters died of yellow fever, leaving just eighteen-year-old Kinney and her mother behind. Daniels then returned north with her daughter, this time to Michigan, so that Kinney could attend the University of Michigan. While studying at the university, Kinney met her husband, Clesson S. Kinney. Kinney's mother lived with the couple until her death in 1891. was born. Kinney took part in various clubs, often assuming leadership positions; The Salt Lake Tribune dubbed her "one of the best-known clubwomen in the State". She served as the librarian of the Utah State Historical Society, president of Salt Lake City's Municipal Reform Club, She was also a member of the Salt Lake Women's Club, and served on the national board of directors of the General Federation of Women's Clubs. Kinney also organized the Provo Progressive Club, later renamed Utah Sorosis, in 1897. The goal of this organization was to "promote the highest development of its members through any avenues of study or work that [seemed] profitable". It was very common at the time for Utah women involved in politics to be members of women's organizations. In this capacity, she oversaw Salt Lake City's celebration of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

From 1921 to 1925, Kinney served in the Utah State Senate as one of five senators for the sixth congressional district in Utah. She was a member of the Republican Party. Her early efforts to pass legislation focused on improving Utah's infrastructure, and were successful; the first bills she wrote established more government-sponsored scholarships and an art institute. Another bill of Kinney's that passed implemented public health regulations regarding sanitation, specifically in schools.

Kinney lobbied for education reform multiple times during her term as senator. She tried to establish kindergarten in the state school system, but the motion was defeated. She also tried to bring the state industrial school (an institution for juvenile offenders) under the direct control of the state and lessen the power of the institutional school board, but this bill failed to pass as well. Her other endeavors included lobbying for government pensions for retirees from the University of Utah and working to establish criteria for parents seeking to adopt a child—mainly, the quality of home the children would be placed into. Kinney also created a bill that would have allowed private citizens the ability to investigate financial malpractice of Utah politicians, specifically their handling of tax funds. The Utah Senate did not, however, pass the bill into law.

Personal life Kinney received a letter in 1895 urging her to come and see her father, Joseph Brown, who was sick. She left immediately for Kansas, but Brown had died by the time she arrived. He left her an estate worth $100,000.