Biographical Database of Montana Woman Suffragists
Biography of Annabel M. McCreery Rooney, 1875-1947
By Mary Gerges, student researcher, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana
Clubwoman
Annabel M. McCreery was born February 17, 1875 in Plainfield, Illinois. Her parents were Charles H. McCreery and Josephine E. Frazier McCreery. In 1900 she married Dr. Arthur Patrick Rooney, five years later she gave birth to their daughter, Pearl Josephine Rooney. By 1920 had Arthur passed away as a result of complications related to gallbladder surgery in Rochester, Minnesota, leaving Annabel a widow with a fifteen-year-old daughter. The U.S. Census reports the Rooneys living in the town of Harlem in Blaine County, Montana from 1910 to 1940.
Rooney was the president of the Harlem Woman's Study Club. She was elected as recording secretary of the Montana Federation of Women's Clubs, the state affiliate of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, at the organization's annual meeting in Helena in 1907. In 1914, Rooney was credited with being "especially active" in the successful statewide campaign for woman suffrage. She continued on as president of the Harlem Woman's Study Club until at least 1916.
Rooney died August 28, 1947, in Toole County, Montana.
Sources:
"Annabel M. McCreery Rooney (1875-1947)," Find A Grave Memorial. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/149704595/annabel-m.-rooney.
"Federation of Woman's Clubs," Fergus County Argus (Lewistown, Mont.), July 02, 1909, p. 3. Montana Newspapers. http://montananewspapers.org/lccn/sn84036228/1909-07-02/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1883&city=&rows=20&words=A Mrs P Rooney&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=0&date2=2015&proxtext=mrs. a.p. rooney&page=1.
Harper, Ida Husted, ed. History of Woman Suffrage. Vol. 6. (National American Woman Suffrage Association, 1922). Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=rIoEAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
Edinger, Annabel. "The Biennial Plan and Plans." Montana Woman (May 1932), p. 68. Montana Memory Project. http://mtmemory.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16013coll68/id/1189/rec/34.
"Harlem," Havre Herald, September 9, 1908, p. 5. Chronicling America. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84036162/1908-09-09/ed-1/seq-5/#date1=1836&index=0&rows=20&words=A Mrs P Rooney&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=Montana&date2=1922&proxtext=mrs. a.p. rooney&y=3&x=15&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
Official Register and Directory of Women's Clubs in Americas, Vol. XVIII (1916), p. 130. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=cXwfAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA130&lpg=PA130&dq=mrs.%2Ba.p.%2Brooney%2Bharlem&source=bl&ots=PK5c54-ZRh&sig=hX2ZX1k00h6lSVaSRYdzq_s-P0A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiB6v3bo7vZAhXlx4MKHQCJDAQQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=mrs.%20a.p.%20rooney%20harlem&f=false.
U.S. Census, 1920. Ancestry.com.