Frances Lillian Willard Munds

Birth: 10 Jun 1866
Franklin, Sacramento County, California, USA
Death: 16 Dec 1948 (aged 82)
Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona, USA
Burial: Mountain View Cemetery

Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona, USA Add to Map
Memorial ID: 21468411 View Source

Many people in Arizona helped the women's cause along. The name most often associated with women's suffrage is Frances Willard Munds (1866-1948) of Prescott. For years, Munds was a sincere and valuable worker with the Territory of Arizona Women Suffrage Organization. In 1898, Munds was elected secretary of the suffrage organization and 'Buckey' O'Neill's widow, Pauline O'Neill, was elected president.

She was born on a ranch outside of Franklin, California in 1866. She attended Mills Seminary College and then went to Central Institute in Pittsfield, Maine, as her sister and husband lived there. She was the first in the family to attend college. Central Institute is now a preparatory school known as Maine Central Institute.

After college, she traveled back to Arizona with some college friends. She became a teacher, after taking a test to see if she was qualified to teach. She taught in various schools from 1887 through1889. During this time she became the woman to take a train to California. She met Johnny Munds and they were married in 1890.
They moved to Prescott in 1895 where Johnny became the Sheriff. Fannie became involved with the Women's Christian Temperance Union, eventually becoming its Vice President, and the Women's Suffrage movement of Arizona of which she was the President.

In 1914, she was elected as the first woman senator in the Arizona legislature, only the second woman in the U.S. to serve in a state legislature. She served one term. After that she became a society woman and didn't run for political office again. She died in 1948 at the age of 82.

Added by: Roselynn Bonnett-Halpin
5/30/2011

-------

In 1982, Frances was inducted into the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame.