January 16, 2009
In the mid 1980s, Margaret O’Rourke-Kelly walked into a serendipitous, life-changing “encounter” with a woman who hiked a similar career path…several decades earlier.
Working on her own campaign for a Michigan House of Representatives seat serving portions of Ingham County, O’Rourke-Kelly was tipped off to the fact that another woman — Dora Hall Stockman — had successfully held the post during the war years in the 1930s and ’40s.
Interested in gathering campaign ideas, O’Rourke-Kelly visited the State Archives of Michigan, found records from Stockman’s life and was awestruck by her many and varied accomplishments.
Although O’Rourke-Kelly, a former Ingham county commissioner, did not win the House seat, she was grateful to have stumbled upon Stockman’s history.
Stockman, who lived from 1872–1948, was an immensely driven and enthusiastic public servant. After growing up in the rural Manistee area, she started her career as a teacher at age 16 and was an advocate for education and women’s issues throughout her life.
She was a prolific writer and public speaker, a strong supporter of Michigan’s agricultural community and was the first woman to be elected to public office in Michigan — to the State Board of Agriculture in 1919. Of note, this was prior to passage of the federal 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. She was also the first woman in the nation to be awarded an honorary doctoral degree, bestowed by Michigan State University in 1934.
For O’Rourke-Kelly, the chance “meeting” with Stockman grew into a passion for sharing the political and educational leader’s inspiring story of service. Although her full-time job is teaching business communications courses at Spring Arbor University, where she has taught for 24 years, Professor O’Rourke-Kelly describes Stockman as her “life project.”
“When I first found Dora Stockman it was just an amazing event because…it was my gold mine,” she explained. “It was absolutely the richest source of information I could find on someone so obscure. They say that when you work on a doctoral degree, you should find a topic you can live with the rest of your professional life. She is that topic for me; always on the periphery of what I’m doing.”
Diving into her years of accumulated research on Stockman, O’Rourke-Kelly last summer completed a biography on the leader, Phenomenal Woman: The Dora Stockman Story. The book was published by Zoe Life Publishing in Canton.
Stockman had been all but forgotten — for reasons that are not yet entirely clear to O’Rourke-Kelly — but she is determined that Stockman’s contributions to the state be recognized today.
“She was a woman who played an important role in Michigan’s history,” O’Rourke-Kelly said. “She left a legacy, and I don’t want that legacy to be forgotten. And, when you read about Stockman’s intentions for education, taxation, family life, her speeches could have been written for today’s circumstances. I think her message is as relevant today as it was yesterday.”
Stockman traveled extensively in Michigan speaking and advocating issues of importance to families throughout her adulthood. Capitalizing on her exposure and broad base of support at the experienced age of 66, Stockman was elected to the House by a vote of 9,626 to 6,446. A tongue-in-cheek newspaper article around the time of her campaign exclaimed that “Dora Stockman has slept in more beds than any other woman in Michigan.” She served four consecutive terms before retiring in 1946.
Another interest the two women share is theater. O’Rourke-Kelly holds two degrees in theater, and Stockman wrote and produced several plays for the Junior Grange — an agricultural group for children and teens and the precursor to today’s 4H program.
“They weren’t just plays to entertain, they were plays to educate,” explained O’Rourke-Kelly. “Her plays were really her vehicle to become an agent for change for young people in Michigan. That was her goal in writing them.”
O’Rourke-Kelly, in turn, has developed a one-woman show based on Stockman’s life and times that she presents across the state. (See sidebar for upcoming appearances.)
As she uncovered Stockman’s many accomplishments, O’Rourke-Kelly wondered how she was able to manage it, given that she was a turn of the century wife and mother. O’Rourke-Kelly found that the era was a robust period of women coming into their own. But much like today, “having it all” came at a price.
Stockman’s son, who at the time of an interview was 85, confessed to O’Rourke-Kelly that, though he adored his mother, his strongest memory of her was of her always leaving him. Stockman’s farmer husband essentially served as the stay-at-home parent to their three sons while Stockman pursued her ideals.
Still, Stockman’s sacrifices can be considered a boon to Michigan. Among the legislation she introduced as a four-term representative were measures to provide for waste and sewerage upgrades, appropriate more funding to distressed Michigan schools, and allow for the incorporation of non-profit health care corporations, paving the way for the formation of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.
“I feel like I’m just starting with her,” said O’Rourke-Kelly. “There are so many nuances here and so many ways her story could be shared. She was someone in her time that was extraordinary. It’s just an amazing story and, I think, a story worth telling.”
Bookworm Jean B. Eggemeyer owns communications and marketing firm Carillon Communications LLC, serving the business and association communities.
Insert your email (required)
Subject
Comments
Insert email of your friends (required)