Eliza Jane Pratt

Who was Eliza Jane Pratt?

Eliza Jane Pratt was a U.S. Representative from North Carolina, the first woman to represent her state in the U.S. Congress.

A native of Anson County, North Carolina, Pratt worked as a newspaper editor in Troy, North Carolina before being hired as a secretary for Congressman Robert L. Doughton in 1924. She then served Doughton and his successors in North Carolina's 8th congressional district for the next twenty-two years: J. Walter Lambeth and William O. Burgin.

When Burgin died in office in 1946, Pratt was elected as a Democrat to fill the vacancy. She served from May 25, 1946, to January 3, 1947 and was not a candidate in the 1946 general election.

Pratt went on to a variety of federal government jobs and again became a secretary for a member of Congress, Alvin Paul Kitchin, from 1957 through 1962.

No woman would be elected again to Congress from North Carolina until Eva M. Clayton was elected in 1992.