Lucy Elmina Anthony

Lucy Elmina Anthony (October 24, 1859 – July 4, 1944) was an internationally known leader in the American woman's suffrage movement. She was the niece of American social reformer and women's rights activist, Susan B. Anthony, and longtime companion of women's suffrage leader, Anna Howard Shaw. She served as a secretary to both women, as well as on the committee on local arrangements for the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA)

Early life Lucy Elmina Anthony was born on October 24, 1859, in Fort Scott, Kansas. She was the oldest child of Jacob Merritt Anthony (1834–1900), a sewing machine salesman, and Mary Almina Luther (1839–1915). Her paternal aunt was Susan B. Anthony, a prominent suffragist. Anthony's father served in the American Civil War, but little else is known about her early life. While in New York, she lived with her aunts, Susan B. Anthony and Mary S. Anthony, and began assisting behind-the-scenes with the women's suffrage movement. She also acted as an assistant to Rachel Foster Avery, who Susan B. Anthony was training to become the leader of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). and the organizations officially united into the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1890. While this unification was being enacted, Anthony, Shaw, and Alice Stone Blackwell compiled The Yellow Ribbon Speaker: Readings and Recitations (1891), a collection of writings on women's suffrage.

Anthony served as Shaw's manager from 1888 until she died in 1919, acting as a business administrator and emotional support, a role for which she received a salary and an assurance that she would receive half of Shaw's belongings. This role included searching for Susan B. Anthony and Shaw as a manager in their world tours. She also worked frequently for the NAWSA itself, coordinating transportation for conferences on the West Coast, working with field offices during state campaigns, and attending most annual conventions. and on the national committee on local arrangements and the committee on railroad rates in 1910. In 1896, Anthony and Elizabeth Sargent arranged a series of conventions in every county in California to promote women's suffrage. After the suffrage victory in 1920, Anthony supported the newly created League of Women Voters and remained active in women's movements throughout her life. but she came to encourage the relationship and persuaded them both to move to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The couple would become longtime companions. In 1903, Shaw built a home at 240 Ridley Creek Road, Media, Pennsylvania, where she lived with Anthony until her death. The house was originally held in Shaw's name but she sold it to Anthony for $1 in 1915.

After Shaw's death, Anthony focused on creating a biography of Shaw and created memorials to her at Bryn Mawr College and the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania.

Personal life Anthony was the executrix of her aunt and Shaw's estates and the primary beneficiary of the latter's will. She was at her aunt Susan's bedside while she was dying in 1906.

Anthony died on July 4, 1944, at the home of a friend, Julia C. Kent, in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, and in her will, she left the bulk of her estate to the National League of Women Voters and the Philadelphia League of Voters.