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| Sen. Florence Fifer Bohrer (R-Bloomington) First woman elected to the Illinois State Senate |
Sen. Bohrer was the daughter of Governor Joe Fifer, who served one term in the late 19th century. Her introduction to Illinois politics came in the brash, take-charge fashion for which she would come to be known. At her father’s inaugural ball, 12-year-old Florence and John Oglesby, son of the former governor, made a surprise appearance by sliding down the Executive Mansion bannister into the middle of the party. It was the kind of entrance that would symbolize her career.
She married in 1895 and had two children, Joseph and
Gertrude. When Gertrude and several of her classmates contracted tuberculosis
in 1910, she helped form the McLean County Tuberculosis Association to educate
local residents on the symptoms of tuberculosis and to conduct medical
screenings. Her activism led to the creation of the McLean County tuberculosis
sanitarium in 1919.
Florence Bohrer became an important figure in the
Bloomington community, and it wasn’t long before local residents looked to her
to take the lead in various community projects. With the outbreak of World War
I, she was chosen to lead the American Red
Cross’ efforts to support the families of soldiers fighting overseas. From
there, it was a natural step into the growing women’s suffrage movement. When women were finally granted full voting
rights, Bohrer was approached by a group of local friends who encouraged her to
be a candidate for the Illinois Senate in 1924.
Campaigning on her record of social service, and arguing for
lower taxes, better roads and more balance between Chicago and downstate,
Bohrer toppled the incumbent Senator in the primary, and cruised to a wide
victory in the general. Around 60 members of the bi-partisan “Florence Fifer
Bohrer Club” from Bloomington, and more than 600 women from around the state
came to Springfield to see her inauguration in January 1925.
Sen. Bohrer’s impact on Illinois history extends beyond her
groundbreaking election in 1924. Her reputation preceded her to the Senate,
where she was made chairman of the Committee to Visit Charitable Institutions,
and was also named to the committees on Agriculture and Livestock; Charitable,
Penal and Reformatory Institutions; and Public Health, Hygiene and Sanitation.
She toured the state as chair of the Public Welfare
Committee, first encountering deaf and blind children on a visit to
Jacksonville’s School for the Deaf and School for the Blind. On a visit to a state
mental hospital in Anna, when she announced that she was a Senator who had come
to inspect the facility she was briefly locked up and thought to be insane by
an orderly who couldn’t believe a woman was actually a Senator and not a
delusional patient. The mistake was quickly rectified by administrators, and
Sen. Bohrer told the story with great amusement for many years.
In the Senate, she sponsored a bill to allow women to serve
on juries. She fought for stronger child welfare laws and helped to organize
the state park system
in Illinois which had been growing since 1908. She sponsored legislation to
make it easier to pay property taxes, allowing payments to be broken into two
installments. Sen. Bohrer also introduced the bill which made “Illinois” the
official state song.
After leaving office in 1933, Sen. Bohrer continued her
civic work. With the onset of the Depression, she headed the McLean County
Emergency Relief Office, without compensation, and helped more than 15,000
county residents through the darkest days of the depression. She also helped form
the McLean County Chapter of the League of Women
Voters, where she served as President and was eventually elected to the
national board. Asked late in life to sum up her career, she said, “I saw a
thing to do, and I did it.”
Sen. Florence Fifer Bohrer died in 1960 at the age of 83.
She is buried in Park Hill Cemetery in Bloomington.