13 Facts About Hazel Abel

Hazel Abel was an American educator and politician in the US state of Nebraska, who served as a member of the United States Senate for fifty-four days in 1954.

Hazel Abel was the second woman elected to the Senate from Nebraska, and she remains the shortest-serving senator from Nebraska.

Hazel Abel attended the public schools of Omaha, Nebraska, and graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1908.

Hazel Abel worked as a high school mathematics teacher and principal in Papillion, Nebraska, Ashland, Nebraska, and Crete, Nebraska, before working as secretary, treasurer, and eventually president of her husband's construction company.

Hazel Abel was a delegate to the Nebraska State Republican Conventions from 1939 to 1948 and from 1952 to 1956.

In 1954 Hazel Abel was elected to be the vice chairman of the State Republican Central Committee.

Hazel Abel became the second woman elected from Nebraska to serve in the Senate, as well as the first woman to follow another woman in a Senate seat, as Eva Bowring had previously been appointed to the seat to serve until an election was held.

Hazel Abel served in the Senate from November 8,1954, until her resignation on December 31,1954.

Hazel Abel was the fifth of six Senators to serve during the fifteenth Senate term for Nebraska's Class 2 seat.

Hazel Abel was a delegate to the White House Conference on Education in 1955, and chairwoman of the Nebraska delegation to the 1956 Republican National Convention.

Hazel Abel served as the president and founder of the Nebraska Federation of Republican Women, and was on the board of trustees at Doane College and Nebraska Wesleyan College.

Hazel Abel tried unsuccessfully to win the Republican nomination for Governor of Nebraska in 1960.

Hazel Abel died in Lincoln, Nebraska, on July 30,1966, and is interred in Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln.