Mary Catherine Souter Franzman
Birth: September 2, 1869 Chask, Minnesota
Death: April 21, 1952 Reno, Nevada
Role in Women’s Suffrage: Organizer of the Nevada Women’s Suffrage Movement, and member of the Nevada 19th Amendment ratification committee
HerStory: Mary Catherine Franzman was born in Chask, Minnesota September 2, 1869. She married John J. Franzman in 1884 and they moved to Reno in 1904 from Lewiston, Idaho.
She became active in civic and suffrage activities. She was a member of the National American Women Suffrage Association in Nevada, the League of Women Voters, and President of Ladies Aid in Reno. In 1928 she was elected as a Republican National Committeewoman and attended the GOP national convention that nominated Herbert Hoover for the presidency. She was vice president of the Reno Women’s Civic club and a president of the American Legion auxiliary.
She was a long-time member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in Reno. Her husband John passed in April of 1940 and Mary Catherine continued with political activities until she suffered a stroke in August of 1951. She was taken to a hospital in Hayward, Calif. where she passed on April 22, 1952.
She and her husband are interred in Mountain View Cemetery in Reno, Nevada.