Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920
Biography of Corinne Mansfield Beattie, 1865-1959
By Rogers Barde, genealogist and researcher, Paris, Kentucky
Vice-president of Tennessee Woman Suffrage Association
Corinne Mansfield Beattie was born December 20, 1865 in Memphis. Her father, Samuel Mansfield, was a wealthy wholesale druggist in the city. She married J.W. Fulmer, a cotton broker, in 1887 and divorced him in 1901 for abandonment. In 1907 she married Robert M. Beattie, a prominent lawyer. He had two children from his previous marriage to Lillie Lotspeich who died in 1899.
Beattie was a wealthy, prominent clubwoman in Memphis and chaired the West Tennessee district for Near East relief after World War I. This group raised money to provide food and clothing for Armenian children who had been orphaned in Turkey.
While little is known of Beattie's day-to-day suffrage work, she was elected Third Vice President of the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Association at their state convention in 1912. She was featured in Nashville's newspaper, The Tennessean, in June of 1919 when she chaired the state convention held at the Centennial Club in Nashville. She stepped in for the president, Mrs. Leslie Warner, who was unable to attend. No doubt Beattie's support and influence was important to the organization.
Beattie's husband, Robert, died in 1940. She remained in Memphis for the rest of her life and died in 1959. Both were buried in the city's Elmwood Cemetery.
Sources:
Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006. Accessed March 7, 2019.
The Leaf-Chronicle. March 26, 1920. http://www.newspapers.com. Accessed March 7, 2019.
The Tennessean, June 27, 1901; January 12, 1912; June 3, 1919. http://www.newspapers.com. Accessed March 7, 2019.
Yellin, Carol Lynn and Janann Sherman. The Perfect 36: Tennessee Delivers Women's Suffrage. Vote 70 Press, Memphis, TN, 2013.