News
Bethan McKernan
Jul 26, 2016
Jerry Emmett, a 102-year-old from Arizona, was six years old when women first won the right to vote in the US.
On Monday, she was at Democrat National Convention ready to cheer as Hillary Clinton becomes the party's first ever female presidential candidate.
In 1920, when the 19th Amendment let women all over the country take part in a national election, Emmett remembers what it was like the first time women went to the voting booth.
All the little old ladies, with their gloves and everything, were so excited. Most of the men were, too – a lot of the women would tell their husbands how to vote. This way was just... right.
There were about 450 people in Gilbert then, and a man would walk out and yell: ‘Hear ye, hear ye! The polls are now open,’ and we’d go to vote.
She's in Philadelphia with friend and superdelegate Carolyn Warner. Over the years, they worked on several campaigns together. Warner told Arizona Central:
John Goodie helps Jerry Emmett to her seat before Hillary Clinton arrives to speak at an event in March 2016. (Picture: Carolyn Kaster/AP)It’s one of the most exciting times of my life, to see this woman, who has been a closet women’s libber all her life, have a chance to see the woman she loves and admires become nominee for the office of president of the United States.
Emmett said she was delighted to be in Philadelphia.
It's a miracle I'm allowed to go, because I'm legally blind and don't hear too well. But I'm just so excited.
Oh, I never thought I’d see a woman in a presidential election. When I was growing up, women could be teachers, secretaries or nurses — and my mother was snubbed at our church for working at all.
That a woman would have this role in the political process... When a woman becomes president I’ll be very, very pleased. I will decide that this country is going in the right direction.
Emmett told reporters she has a dress ready for Clinton's inauguration.
Watch an interview with her at home below:
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