Febb Burn

Phoebe "Febb" Ensminger Burn (1873–1945) was an American schoolteacher. She is credited with playing a crucial role in ensuring the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution through a letter she sent to her son, then-Tennessee State Representative Harry T. Burn, resulting in him casting the deciding vote in favor of ratification in Tennessee, the final state needed to ratify the amendment.

Biography Burn was born in Mount Verd, Tennessee, in 1873. Little is known about her childhood, but she is known to have graduated the U.S. Grant Memorial University, now Tennessee Wesleyan University, during a time which news site The Persistent described as one in which "academia was a man's domain".

After college, she married James Lafayette Burn, a stationmaster, and worked as a teacher.

She was said to read three newspapers a day, and was passionate about equal rights, often speaking about the matter at home with her family, including Harry. She was also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

During the discussion of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which would grant suffrage to women, she encouraged her son to vote in favor of the amendment. However, he had settled against voting for it due to political pressures from his voters. saying "Hurrah and vote for suffrage and don’t keep them in doubt" and "Don’t forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt". He kept the letter in his pocket on the date he cast the vote, and it is credited with flipping his vote, resulting in him casting the deciding vote in favor of suffrage becoming part of the constitution. This resulted in the wife of a former Governor of Louisiana visiting her house, spending four hours trying to convince her to get her son to change his vote. She remained resolute, however, despite this lecturing and her neighbors' pity, stating in an interview: "I am glad he loved me enough to say afterwards my letter had that much influence on him... I don't need any sympathy. I am proud of my son. He has covered himself in glory."

Legacy The Burn Memorial in Knoxville, Tennessee, is a tribute to both her and her son Harry. Her letter is held in the archives of the Knox County Public Library. Her desk is in her county's history museum.

Her alma mater established the Febb Burn Society of Women Philanthropists in her honor.

Tennessee has named every August 18, the day of the vote, Febb Burn Day.

She is included in the Broadway musical Suffs, where she sings the song A Letter from Harry's Mother.