Mary Gant
Mary L. Jones Gant is an American politician who became the first woman elected to the Missouri Senate. In 1972, after three terms in the Missouri House, she was elected to the state senate with over 70% of the vote. Although she belonged to the Democratic Party, she was against the Equal Rights Amendment and later endorsed Republican Kit Bond for Governor of Missouri over the Democratic incumbent Joseph P. Teasdale. She lost re-election to Lee Swinton Missouri's first African-American state senator from the Kansas City Area. In 1981, Governor Bond appointed her as chair of the State Board of Mediation. She held this position for 13 years.
