Biographical Sketch of Mattie Bell Cawthon Singletary

Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890–1920

Biography of Mattie Bell Cawthon Singletary, 1883-1955

By Katlin Wood, student, Coastal Carolina University, Conway, South Carolina

Founder of Women's Equal Suffrage League of Louisiana, President

Mattie Bell Cawthon Singletary was born in Louisiana on December 8, 1883 to James Cawthon and Mary Drusilla Garner Cawthon. She lived in Jackson Ward 3, Madison, Tennessee with her family where she attended school at South West Baptist University. On October 21, 1903 she married Alfred Blassingame Singletary in New Orleans, Louisiana. She then moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana with her husband where they started a family and their own farming business. She had two sons Alfred Blassingame Jr. (1904-1964) and Burgess Garner (1905-1976) and a daughter Drusilla (1920-2000). Mattie Bell remained married to her husband Alfred (A.B.) for thirty-nine years until his death on March 7, 1942. She then moved to Jackson, Madison County, Tennessee to live with her daughter where she died at the age of seventy-two on July 2, 1955 and was buried in Ridgecrest Cemetery.

Mattie Bell Cawthon Singletary organized the Women's Equal Suffrage League of Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1913 being a key organizer in its early years. This organization was the first of its kind in the state of Louisiana and had the participation of both men and women. The primary objective of the organization in 1913 was to amend the state constitution to include women's voting rights, which would evolve into a goal to make changes on the federal level.

Sources:

Ida H. Harper, et al., eds. History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6 [LINK]

Image of Grave Marker https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/85589870;

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll&db=1900usfedcen&h=69990495&indiv=try&o_vc=Record:OtherRecord&rhSource=2546 (Accessed November 8,2017);

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll&db=FSTennesseeDeath&h=529303&indiv=try&o_vc=Record:OtherRecord&rhSource=60901 (Accessed November 2, 2017);

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll&db=1920usfedcen&h=60211067&indiv=try&o_vc=Record:OtherRecord&rhSource=2546 (Accessed November 2,2017);

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=FindAGraveUS&h=40958371&indiv=try&o_vc=Record:OtherRecord&rhSource=6061 (Accessed November 2, 2017) Link provided at this location for grave photo;

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=NewOrleansMarriages&h=137536&indiv=try&o_vc=Record:OtherRecord&rhSource=6061 (Accessed November 2, 2017);

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=LouisianaStatewideDeath&h=487774&indiv=try&o_vc=Record:OtherRecord&rhSource=6061 (Accessed November 6, 2017);

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1920usfedcen&h=60211066&indiv=try&o_vc=Record:OtherRecord&rhSource=6697 (Accessed November 8, 2017)

 

Gravestone of Mattie Bell Cawthon Singletary in Ridgecrest Cemetery
Found at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/85589870

back to top