Born before women could vote

When Faye Butler was born in 1918, the star player for the Red Sox was Babe Ruth, World War I was five months away from ending, and women could not vote.

Butler, who was born in Iowa and lives in Decatur, is 98 years old and has now voted in her 20th presidential election. She cast her ballot for Hillary Clinton, meaning the woman who was born before women had the right to vote has voted for a woman for president.

"I'm sure that she's going to be Madam President," Butler says.

She tells WSB she's not surprised. "I've been thinking about this for 10 years now and I was really disappointed that she didn't make it the first time."

Butler was born in Council Bliffs, where her younger sister (younger by 18 months) still lives. She says that when she voted this year she thought about her mother and women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, who fought for the right.

"When I heard what they did in order to get us the right to vote," she says, "I think that young women need to get out and vote."

Butler says she did not hear either her mother or grandmother tell stories about being represented by people they could not vote for, but did relay one story about her grandmother and the time she was getting ready to vote for the first time.

"I asked her if she was going to vote and she said no," Butler says, "because she said she would eliminate Pa's vote if she did.

"So I told her that, if I ever got married and he was going to vote for someone I didn't like, I was going to make sure to vote.”

Butler, who was a charter subscriber to Ms. Magazine (and still has the Margaret doll she bought when she purchased the subscription), says she often considers herself lucky to be born before women could vote and now has voted for a woman.

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