Everglades Biographies
Ruth Bryan Owen (Rohde)
Ruth Bryan Owen was born in Jacksonville, Ill., in 1885; she moved with
her family to Lincoln, Nebraska in 1887. She was educated in Nebraska and
Illinois. After two years at the University of Nebraska, Ruth Bryan
married an artist and had two children. The couple was divorced in 1909.
She then spent a few years in Jamaica, West Indies and in London, England
where she married retired major Reginald Owen in 1910. Ruth traveled the
world with her husband, bearing two more children. She also worked as a
nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment in the Egypt-Palestine campaign from
1915-1918. Upon returning to the United States in 1919, the Owens settled
in Miami where Ruth's parents had earlier retired. Ruth Bryan Owen worked
at the University of Miami as a lecturer and administrator for several
years, while also taking care of her invalid husband.
The daughter of William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic
presidential nominee and Secretary of State under President Woodrow
Wilson, Owen had a natural interest in politics and government. In 1908,
at age 23, she was responsible for Bryan's campaign correspondence. In
1929, just eight years after women obtained the right to vote, Owen was
elected to the Seventy-first Congress and was re-elected to the
Seventy-second Congress in 1931. She was a widow and the mother of four
when elected to her first term. As the representative of Florida's Fourth
Congressional District, she sponsored numerous bills benefiting south
Florida, including the proposal designating the Florida Everglades as a
national park. She also led passage of bills to develop state rivers and
harbors, including Port Everglades.
Congresswoman Owen's staunch defense of the Everglades National Park
project was not always appreciated by her constituents at home. Owen's
longtime friend Marjory
Stoneman Douglas recalled a particularly dramatic debate on Capitol
Hill which Florida landowners attended to voice their strong opposition to
the proposed Park. They argued that selling their property to the
government was senseless because the Everglades was merely a worthless
swamp filled with snakes and mosiquoes. The constituents brought along a
live snake to make their point. Congresswoman Owen, determined not to lose
the argument to such lowly pranks, grabbed the snake, wrapped it around
her neck, and announced, " That's how afraid we are of snakes in the
Everglades!"
In 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Ruth Bryan Owen as
Minister to Denmark; she was the first woman to represent the United
States in so high a diplomatic post. She served successfully until 1936
when she married Rohde, a Danish Captain of the King's Guard. This gave
her dual citizenship as a Dane, so she resigned her post. In 1949,
President Truman named Owen an alternate delegate to the UN General
Assembly.
In 1954 Ruth Bryan Owen died in Denmark at the age of 68. Her remains
were buried near Copenhagen.
Biography prepared by Gail Clement, Florida
International University
Excerpt from
Hearing before the
Committee on the Public Lands, House of Representatives, Seventy-first
Congress, Third Session on H.R. 12381, to Provide for the Establishment of
the Everglades National Park in the State of Florida, and For Other
Purposes, Government Printing Office, 1931.
"There seems to be an
interest on the part of the committee to make a distinction between the
preservation of bird and animal life, and the establishment of national
park standards. Now, in answer to the question as to whether the
Everglades territory measured up to national park standards, we have a
group of scientists here to present one after another to speak of the
various features, and before they speak I want to read a brief statement
from from David Fairchild, who has been referred to by Mr. Albright as one
of the most distinguished naturalists with a knowledge of plant life in
the country, and he touches on the answer to the very question that was
put. He says:
How can anyone object to the establishment of a great
wild-life park where swimming and flying inhabitants will inspire
millions of American children and give them a glimpse of the fascination
of the tropics, which circumstances may never permit them to see
elsewhere.
That is the inspirational,
educational feature.
It will soon be within the reach of the week-end
excursionists from the crowded centers of American life, and will
startle them out of the ruts which an exclusive association with the
human animal produces on the mind of man. It will be peculiarly a
mid-winter park, the only one so far in the northern hemisphere warm
enough to play in in the winter, where those too old or those too young
to brave rigourous American winters can experience the thrill of the
tropics.
That refers to the
inspirational value.
Photograph of the Honorable Ruth Bryan Owen during National park
committee visit to the Everglades, 1929-1930.
Photo courtesy of University of Miami Libraries, University Archives
