Martha Lucy Rawlings Tootell (November 27, 1911 – January 5, 2010) was an American schoolteacher and politician who served in the Rhode Island House of Representatives. She represented District 52 from 1973 until 1977.

Early life

Martha Lucy Rawlings was born in Jacksonville, Illinois and moved with her family to Rhode Island in 1913.[1][2] She was raised on the Lillibridge Plantation, property Thomas Lillibridge had acquired between 1717 and 1720. It remained in the Lillibridge family until 1904, and her parents acquired the land in 1912 from Albert and Susie Watson.[3][4]

Rawlings graduated from Rhode Island College in 1933 and pursued further study at the Boston University School of Law.[5][2] Prior to her career in politics, she taught at Roger Williams Junior High School in Providence and Richmond Elementary School in Richmond.[2] In 1941, she became vice president of the Wood River Branch Railroad when her father Roy Willard Rawlings moved to Florida, a position she held until the railroad's abandonment in 1947. She was one of, if not the only woman to hold such a position at the time in the United States.[6]

Political career

Tootell was a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives between 1973 and 1977.[7] She was the first woman to represent district 52 in the state house.[8] Although Frank Heppner writes that Tootell was affiliated with the Democratic Party,[9] records kept by the government of Rhode Island state that Tootell was nominated by the Republican Party without opposition in 1972 and 1974, and faced opposition candidate Robert M. Smith in the 1972 general election, while winning reelection unopposed in 1974.[10][11]

Personal life

She married Fred Tootell in 1937 and they had three children.[12][13] Their home in Kingston is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Tootell House.

Her brother Rob Roy Rawlings also served in the state legislature and her father, Roy Willard Rawlings, was a Republican Speaker of the Rhode Island House.[9][14] She was posthumously inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 2013.[2]

References

  1. ^ "Lucy Rawlings Tootell". Providence Journal. January 10, 2010. Retrieved May 28, 2020. Originally published by the Avery Storti Funeral Home
  2. ^ a b c d Wilson, Iain; Gomes, Derrick (April 19, 2013). "Two South County women among inductees to Heritage Hall of Fame". The Independent. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
  3. ^ Hall, James Lowell (2015). Lillibridge Houses, expanded version. Lulu.com. p. 26. ISBN 9781329396500.
  4. ^ Hall, James (2015). Lillibridge Houses. Lulu.com. p. 11. ISBN 9781329212961.
  5. ^ "Class notes: 1933" (PDF). Rhode Island College Alumni Magazine. 2013–2014. p. 36. Retrieved May 28, 2020.
  6. ^ Kennedy, J. B. (2018). Two tickets on the Wood River Train : the life and times of the Wood River Branch railroad. Watertown, NY. pp. 113, 118. ISBN 978-1-68454-738-8. OCLC 1085546521.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ^ "Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame: Lucy Rawlings Tootell, Inducted 2013". www.riheritagehalloffame.com.
  8. ^ "Driftways Into the Past: Local History of the Town of Richmond, Rhode Island, as Remembered and Visualized by Members of the Richmond Historical Society and the Richmond Bicentennial Commission". Richmond Historical Society. May 28, 1977 – via Google Books.
  9. ^ a b Heppner, Frank (February 27, 2012). Railroads of Rhode Island: Shaping the Ocean State's Railways. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781614233633 – via Google Books.
  10. ^ "OFFICIAL COUNT OF THE BALLOTS CAST... 1972" (PDF). Government of Rhode Island. 1972. Retrieved May 28, 2020.
  11. ^ "OFFICIAL COUNT OF THE BALLOTS CAST... (1974)" (PDF). Government of Rhode Island. 1974. Retrieved May 28, 2020.
  12. ^ "Frederic Delmont Tootell '23". Bowdoin Alumni Magazine. November 1964.
  13. ^ "Frederick Tootell, track coach, was 62". New York Times. October 1, 1964. Retrieved May 28, 2020.
  14. ^ "Who's who in the East". Larkin, Roosevelt & Larkin. May 28, 1957 – via Google Books.


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