Polly Rosenbaum

Edwynne Cutler "Polly" Rosenbaum (September 4, 1899 – December 28, 2003) was a teacher and politician who was Arizona's longest-serving state legislator, representing Gila County in the Arizona House of Representatives for 46 years.

Life and career before entering the state legislature Polly Rosenbaum was born Edwynne Cutler in Ollie, Iowa, in 1899. She moved to Colorado as a child and attended the University of Colorado Boulder, where she graduated in 1922 with a bachelor's degree in history and political science. She taught school in Iowa, Colorado, and in Lusk, Wyoming, and undertook graduate study at the University of Southern California, which awarded her a master's degree in education in 1929. In 1929 she moved to Hayden, Arizona, a mining town, to take a teaching job.

When the legislative seat came up for election in 1950, Rosenbaum ran for the seat in her own right and won. A Democrat, she was to win a total of 22 elections to two-year terms. She retired from the legislature at the age of 95 after losing the November 1994 election to a political newcomer who benefited from redistricting (which had resulted in her district including parts of eight counties ) and an anti-incumbency mood. Several weeks after her election loss, former U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater, an Arizona Republican, told the Los Angeles Times: "People in this state still can't believe she was defeated.... She's so damn good that everybody wanted to see her stay in the Legislature as long as she wanted—and I have a hunch that was where she planned to spend her life."

Rosenbaum was also noted for her commitment to the interests of women. She once said of Arizona's women: "The women really won the West, not the men. The women are the ones who got the libraries and worked for the schools." She remained active for the rest of her life. After her death, the Arizona Republic said of her in an editorial-page remembrance: "Right up to the end, she kept on giving speeches, serving on committees and even trying to get rose bushes planted in front of the Capitol again."

Rosenbaum died from congestive heart failure in Phoenix at age 104 on December 28, 2003.

Honors, awards, and legacy Rosenbaum was the recipient of many honors and awards during her long life, as well as some posthumous honors. She was Globe's Business and Professional Woman of the Year in 1960 and the Gila County Woman of the Year in 1974. The Polly Rosenbaum Writing Contest is conducted each year by the Arizona Educational Foundation, stimulating and recognizing creative writing by students in grades 7 through 12.