HELENA – The statue of Jeannette Rankin in the Montana State Capitol was dressed for the occasion on Election Day – not in bronze but in flowers.
People visited the Capitol to pay their respects to the first female U.S. Representative with bouquets, garlands and "I Voted" stickers.
Camas Sturm Kakuk of Helena was one of them, along with her daughters Eleanor and Rose.
"I was brainstorming with some of my friends about ways to make this election memorable for our children,” Kakuk said. “I have two daughters, and I want them to remember this in their own words."
Rankin holds the distinction of being the first woman to hold a federal office and the only member of the U.S. House to vote against both World Wars. Kakuk said she told her daughters how Montana elected Rankin in 1916, and 100 years later, the nation has the chance to elect its first female president.
Rankin’s statue isn’t the only tribute that famous political women are getting this election season. Many visitors added their “I Voted” stickers to the grave of Susan B. Anthony, a well-known suffragette, in Rochester, New York. In Laramie, Wyoming, people gathered at a statue of Louisa Swain, the first woman in the United States to vote in a general election.
Kakuk said she wanted her daughters to be able to tell their own children a personal memory from this election.
"I started crying, and they were a little worried," Kakuk said. "I was just totally overwhelmed that (Rankin's statue) was already covered with stickers and flowers."