18 Facts About Winnie Branstetter

Winnie Branstetter organized for the Socialist Party of America in Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Illinois, serving as the first Secretary of the Socialist Party of New Mexico.

Winnie Branstetter was active in the Oklahoma Woman's Suffrage Association, serving as vice-president for three years, and the socialist Women's National Committee, serving as an officer in 1913.

Winnie Branstetter Estelle Shirley was born in Hick City, Missouri on March 19,1879, to Ambrose and Gertrude Prather Shirley.

Winnie Branstetter had homestead with her father in Cleveland County in the Land Rush of 1889, before moving to Kansas City in 1890.

Winnie Branstetter went to Kansas City schools and worked as a department store clerk until she met and married Otto Branstetter in 1899.

In 1908, Winnie Branstetter was elected secretary of the Socialist Party of Oklahoma and served as a delegate to the national Socialist Party of America convention.

Winnie Branstetter was one of 19 women elected as delegates to the 1908 convention.

Winnie Branstetter was one of the founding members of the Women's National Committee within the party and served as their national secretary.

Winnie Branstetter served in this position between February 1908 and August 1909.

Winnie Branstetter was her party's nominee for Superintendent of Schools in Estancia, New Mexico in 1908.

Winnie Branstetter placed 3rd, behind the Democratic and Republican Parties' nominees.

Winnie Branstetter was a suffragette and served as the vice-president of the Oklahoma Woman's Suffrage Association for three years.

Winnie Branstetter advocated working with existing suffragette organizations to help recruit for the Socialist Party of America while organizing for the right to vote.

Winnie Branstetter considered woman's suffrage vital to allowing women to fight capitalism that subjected women to low-paying jobs, farm labor, and dependency on marriage.

Winnie Branstetter was a frequent contributor to The Socialist Woman, writing articles for women's suffrage and against child labor aimed towards the wives of tenant farmers in Oklahoma.

Winnie Branstetter concludes by reflecting on the economic hardship his wife and daughter will face without him.

Winnie Branstetter published feminist short stories, such as her 1911 short story Meta.

Winnie Branstetter died died on November 15,1960, in Providence, Rhode Island and was buried at Swan Point Cemetery.