1964 Easterling
Ruth Easterling was born in Gaffney, South Carolina in 1910 and attended Limestone College there after she graduated from high school. One of her first jobs in Charlotte was working for Mr. I.D. Blumenthal as an executive secretary and was one of the first to pass the Professional Secretaries' certification exam. She joined the League of Women Voters and in 1955 became President of the Charlotte Business and Professional Women. She worked with Governor Terry Stanford to establish the Commission on the Status of Women and her work with this organization helped her to win the Charlotte Woman of the Year award in 1964. She had worked hard to get the Equal Rights Amendment passed for years and the Senate finally passed it the day after she was appointed to the Charlotte City Council in 1971. Easterling was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1976 during a time when very few women ran for political office. Throughout the 1990s, Mrs. Easterling advocated for higher salaries for teachers, many of whom doubled as nurses to provide medication and counselors for their students without any extra pay. In 1995, she attended the United Nations conference for Women in China and in 1999, House Speaker Jim Black appointed her co-chair of the House Appropriations Committee, making her only the second woman to hold that position. Mrs. Easterling retired from the House in 2002, after serving for 27 years in which she fought for improving divorce laws, conditions in day cares and education.