Cancer survivors need role models. Senator Mary Gordon Ellis (1890-1934) has inspired women in South Carolina for generations. Her ability to juggle cancer and life remains a beacon to all of us.
PUBLISHED March 20, 2018
Felicia Mitchell is a poet and writer who makes her home in southwestern Virginia, where she teaches at Emory & Henry College. She was diagnosed with Stage 2b HER2-positive breast cancer in 2010. Website: www.feliciamitchell.net
This year's theme for Women's History Month is "Nevertheless, She Persisted: Honoring Women Who Fight All Forms of Discrimination Against Women." While many women from the world of cancer illustrate this theme, I choose one out of my personal and social history: Mary Gordon Ellis, the first woman elected to the Senate in South Carolina. She persisted.
Born April 21, 1890, to Alexander McKnight Gordon and Mary Lee Gamble, Mary Henry Gordon grew up in Williamsburg County. She attended Winthrop College a few hours up the train tracks to study to become a schoolteacher. After moving to teach in Jasper County on the other side of the state, she married a farmer, Junius Ellis, and left teaching for a time to work with him on the farm and raise a family.
Born April 21, 1890, to Alexander McKnight Gordon and Mary Lee Gamble, Mary Henry Gordon grew up in Williamsburg County. She attended Winthrop College a few hours up the train tracks to study to become a schoolteacher. After moving to teach in Jasper County on the other side of the state, she married a farmer, Junius Ellis, and left teaching for a time to work with him on the farm and raise a family.
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