Mamie Shields Pyle

Mary "Mamie" Shields Pyle (February 28, 1866 – December 22, 1949) was a women's suffrage leader in the U.S. state of South Dakota. She was instrumental in the state's enactment of women's suffrage in 1918.

Following a failed 1910 referendum on women's suffrage, Pyle became the leader of the South Dakota Universal Franchise League. She then led the organization through several attempts to pass state referendums, narrowing the margin of defeat over time until women's suffrage became part of the Citizenship Amendment and finally passed in 1918. Pyle remained president of the South Dakota Universal Franchise League through the state's ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment the following year. She later became president of the state's chapter of the League of Women Voters. Pyle was one of the first women to become a presidential elector in 1921.

Beyond suffrage, Pyle supported the proposed Equal Rights Amendment. She was believed in education and worked to establish Huron College in Huron, South Dakota, where she was a trustee for over forty years. Provided by Wikipedia