Information Sheet

 

 

R         Ousley, Mayme Hanrahan, 1887-1970.

173                  Papers, 1889-1967.

                                    Forty-two folders.

 

 

 

This collection consists of correspondence and miscellaneous papers of a civic leader and mayor of St. James in Phelps County, Missouri.  She was the first woman to be elected to the may­or­alty of a city in Missouri.  The papers include material regarding city business, her posi­tion on the board of Missouri State Training Schools, and her activities with the Rebekah Lodge (I.O.O.F.).

 

Mayme Hanrahan Ousley was born on 2 January 1887 at Edgar Springs in Phelps County, Missouri.  She grew up in Rolla, and in 1905 she married Edward William Ousley, also a native of Phelps County and a 1906 graduate of Washington University’s dental school.  Fol­lowing gradua­tion, Dr. Ousley set up a practice in St. James, and he and his wife made that city their home for their entire adult lives.  They were prominent public figures in St. James, being active in the Chamber of Commerce, the St. James Charity Board, and the Episcopal Church.  Both died and are buried in St. James.

 

The Ousleys were involved in many fraternal, social, and business clubs, and were particu­larly active in the Masonic and Odd Fellow lodges.  Mayme Ousley was an officer of the Order of the Eastern Star and the Rebekah Lodge, and was for many years a trustee of the Odd Fellow re­tirement home in Liberty, Missouri.  She was also a member and officer of the Na­tional Good Roads Association and the Ozark Trails Association, both groups promoting an interstate high­way sys­tem in the 1920s.

 

Mayme Ousley was also quite active in local Missouri Republican politics, and was one of the first women in the state to run for public office.  She was defeated in bids for state representa­tive and state senator, but she served four terms as mayor of St. James, elected in 1921, 1939, 1941, and 1955.  She was the first woman in Missouri to serve as a municipal chief executive.  In 1946, she was appointed to the board of the Missouri State Training Schools, which was charged with the responsibility of overseeing the schools at Boonville and Chilli­cothe.

 

The Ousley papers reflect a long career of public service by a woman of considerable execu­tive ability.  They have been arranged in five sections: her personal correspondence; bio­graphical and genealogical material; official papers including St. James city business; papers pertaining to the Missouri State Training Schools; and lodge correspondence and printed ma­terial.  Her per­sonal correspondence generally concerns family and friends, but some items mention political or lodge affairs.  The papers reflect a wide variety of acquaintances through­out the state.  Her may­oral pa­pers include information on a number of facets of city business, especially the establish­ment of a municipal utilities plant and the creation of a park by the James Foundation of New York at the site of the iron works at Maramec Spring.

 

Information concerning the board of Missouri State Training Schools begins with Ousley’s appointment to the newly-created board by Gov. Phil M. Donnelly in 1946.  The original mem­bers of the board served only two years before being removed by executive order, an action by the gov­ernor which spawned controversy and litigation.  The collection includes minutes of meet­ings, le­gal papers, and correspondence with board members Fred Naeter, Thomas T. Neill, and Mrs. Tom Stark, and with director of schools Louis J. Sharp.

 

The last section of the collection consists of lodge papers.  Most pertain to the Re­bekah Lodge, with only one folder of miscellaneous material concerning Ousley's long asso­ciation with the Order of the Eastern Star.  The Rebekah Lodge papers deal with her duties connected with various offices of the organization, local and statewide, including a post on the board of trustees of the Odd Fellow Home of Missouri at Liberty.

 

 

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