10 Facts About Ruth Thompson

Ruth Thompson was a Republican politician from the US state of Michigan.

Ruth Thompson graduated from Muskegon Business College of nearby Muskegon in 1905, and became a lawyer with a private practice.

Ruth Thompson was registrar of probate court of Muskegon County and judge of probate from 1925 to 1937.

Ruth Thompson gained national recognition as an advocate for children's rights during that period.

Ruth Thompson was elected the county's first female state representative in 1938 and served as a member of the Michigan House of Representatives from 1939 to 1941.

In 1950, Ruth Thompson was elected as a Republican from Michigan's 9th congressional district to the 82nd Congress and subsequently re-elected to the two succeeding Congresses serving from January 3,1951, to January 3,1957, in the US House.

Ruth Thompson was the first woman to represent Michigan in Congress and the first woman to serve on the House Judiciary Committee.

On February 26,1954, Ruth Thompson introduced legislation to ban mailing "obscene, lewd, lascivious or filthy" phonograph records.

Ruth Thompson was an unsuccessful candidate for re-nomination to the 85th Congress in 1956, being defeated by fellow Republican Robert P Griffin and returned to her home in Whitehall.

Ruth Thompson died in Plainwell Sanitorium in Allegan County, Michigan, and was interred in Oakhurst Cemetery of Whitehall.