Who was the first female mayor in Maine?

Dear swellchick-ga;

Since you are in agreement with the research I will re-post my
findings here and close the question:

According to what I found:

Susanna Medora Salter was the first woman to be elected mayor of "any"
US city (Argonia, Kansas 1887).

Mary Carey Dondero became the first mayor of any city "east of the
Mississippi" when she won the mayoral election in Portsmouth, New
Hampshire in 1944.

Now this interesting document mentions the first female mayor of
Portland, Maine as being elected in 1946:

?The first woman mayor was Helen Frost, elected in 1946 and 1951?
OUR LADY OF VICTORIES MONUMENT
http://www.usm.maine.edu/~history/newtrail.html

Dondero became the first mayor of any city east of the Mississippi in
1944, and as such, given the times and the fact that women becoming
mayors in New England was a new and unusual concept, it is doubtful
that any other woman besides Dondero might have held the office in
Maine during the period between 1944 (Dondero?s election) and 1946
(when Helen Frost was sworn into office in Portland).

If this is so ? and I found no evidence to the contrary ? it would
mean that Helen Frost, in 1946, became the first female to hold the
office of mayor in the state of Maine.

I welcome your rating and your final comments and I look forward to
working with you again in the near future. Thank you for bringing your
question to us.

Best regards;
tutuzdad-ga

* SOURCES *

DEFINED ABOVE

* SEARCH TERMS *

"first woman" mayor, Maine, "first female", woman elected mayor

---

Clarification of Answer by tutuzdad-ga on 15 Jan 2004 14:40 PST

Intersting note: In New Hapshire, Mary Dondero went on to serve 10
terms in the House and even won the Democratic nomination to the
Senate. But she was defeated at the polls BY A SINGLE VOTE! Her
winning opponent....was another woman.

As Paul Harvey would say: Now you know the rest of the story.

Regards;
tutuzdad-ga

Dear swellchick-ga;

I?m going to offer this to you initially as a comment, however I do
believe it is the correct answer and will post it as such if you are
agreeable to it. The difficulty here is that little researchable
material exists on the issue so I was forced to reach my conclusion
through the power of deduction instead of hard presentable fact. If
you will accept this as an answer please let me know so I can formally
close your question for you?here goes:

Susanna Medora Salter was the first woman to be elected mayor of "any"
US city (Argonia, Kansas 1887).

Mary Carey Dondero became the first mayor of any city "east of the
Mississippi" when she won the mayoral election in Portsmouth, New
Hampshire in 1944.

Now this interesting document mentions the first female mayor of
Portland, Maine as being elected in 1946:

?The first woman mayor was Helen Frost, elected in 1946 and 1951?
OUR LADY OF VICTORIES MONUMENT
http://www.usm.maine.edu/~history/newtrail.html

Dondero became the first mayor of any city east of the Mississippi in
1944, and as such, given the times and the fact that women becoming
mayors in New England was a new and unusual concept, it is doubtful
that any other woman besides Dondero might have held the office in
Maine during the period between 1944 (Dondero?s election) and 1946
(when Helen Frost was sworn into office in Portland).

If this is so ? and I found no evidence to the contrary ? it would
mean that Helen Frost, in 1946, became the first female to hold the
office of mayor in the state of Maine.

Please let me know if this research provides a sufficient answer to your question.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher

That suffices, I found as far as Dondero becoming the first woman east
of the Mississippi.  Thanks! sweelchick