
Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On January 24, 1937, Iowa's first female Secretary of State and founder of the Iowa State Highway Patrol, Eunice Viola (Ola) Babcock Miller, passed away. An influential Iowa politician, Babock Miller, helped make Iowa’s highways safer while shattering glass ceilings.

Ola attended public school in Washington before completing her education at Iowa Wesleyan College. Married to newspaperman Alex Miller, Ola Babcock Miller supported her husband's political ambitions, including an unsuccessful run for governor in 1926.

After Alex passed away, Ola decided to get involved in politics herself. She started traveling around the state promoting social reform causes and encouraging women to take advantage of the 19th Amendment and exercise their voting rights.

When asked, Ola Babcock Miller decided to run for Secretary of State in 1928. Her son-in-law, George Gallup, got his start in political polling by correctly predicting her election victory. Miller, who learned of a close friend's young son killed in a traffic accident just before she took office, immediately set out to improve motor vehicle safety. #IowaOTD #IowaHistoryDaily #IowaHistoryCalendar

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