Zeola Hershey Misener

Mary Zeola Hershey Misener (October 22, 1878 – October 30, 1966) was an Indiana suffragist and politician. A Republican, she was the first woman elected to state legislature from her district and one of the first in the state.

Early life and education Mary Zeola Hershey was born October 22, 1878, in West Salem, Ohio She attended the United Brethren College in Westerville, Ohio, and King's School of Oratory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. and suffragist

She was elected to the Indiana General Assembly in 1928, the first woman to be elected from her district and one of the first in the state. She was one of three women in the Indiana State House in the 1928–1930 term. Charles Roll in his 1931 history of Indiana called her "one of the prominent Republican women of the state." She showed up uninvited on the floor of the Indiana Senate during a "midnight session" while some senators were claiming the governor had requested they recall the bill. She asked on whose authority members of the Senate had stated that the governor had asked for reconsideration of the bill, saying, "I have just come from the governor's office, and I am informed that he has not asked this move."

Then-Lieutenant Governor Edgar D. Bush ruled her out of order. She said, "That's all right. I've said everything I want to say anyhow," and left the floor to applause. After her departure, when the lieutenant governor refused to address her comments, a group of senators staged a walkout.

When the Senate requested the General Assembly to recall the bill, Hershey Misener told the General Assembly, "You can kill this bill if you want to, but if you do the Republican party will be to blame."

Later life She and her husband eventually moved to St. Petersburg, Florida. She was widowed in 1945. She died October 30, 1966, in St. Petersburg at age 88 and is buried in Greenwood cemetery in La Porte County, Indiana.