Louise Holland Coe

Louise Holland Coe (November 26, 1894 – March 13, 1985) was the first woman elected to the New Mexico Senate and its first female president pro tempore. She was elected six years after women in the United States won the right to vote, and she was also the first woman Democratic candidate for the United States Congress, running in 1940. She moved to Roswell, New Mexico during her childhood.

Coe's early background and career was in public education and administration. She began teaching at rural schools. From 1916 to 1918, Coe taught classes in the Ruidoso Valley.

In 1940, Coe ran for a position in the United States House of Representatives and was the first Democratic woman to do so. This community was named in her family's honor. Through her life, she traveled to various countries, including Thailand, Japan, and India.

Coe died in 1985 from unstated natural causes, at Casa Maria Health Care Center in Roswell, New Mexico. Her remains were cremated and buried at her family's private cemetery in Glencoe.

Publications

(Originally published in New Mexico Magazine in the 1970s)