Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920
Biography of Jessie E. Nourse Sackrider, 1876-1966
By Kanaan Goldstein,
Student, University of Central Oklahoma
Jessie Nourse Sackrider was born in Kansas on November 20, 1876 to Josiah and Edith B. Nourse. Jessie married Donald H. Sackrider, a World War I Army veteran, on August 19, 1916, in Noble, Oklahoma, and the couple had no children. The couple lived in Enid, Oklahoma, where she worked as a post office clerk, dabbled in real estate, and taught at Enid City schools. The Enid Weekly Wave wrote: "Our school, under the management of Mrs. Jessie Nourse Sackrider, is now under headway and in a flourishing condition".
Sackrider was involved in various women's clubs and organizations including Oklahoma Women's Suffrage Association, a NAWSA chapter. Even before her marriage, as a single woman, she organized Enid's first equal suffrage club and held meetings in her real estate office. In later years, she attended state meetings held in Oklahoma City, recruited members for the organization, and sought to educate the voters of the danger of the silent vote. During the 1920 local election, Sackrider was responsible for counting and delivering ballots.
In 1923, the Sackriders moved to Newhall, California. Jessie's husband died the following year, suffering from tuberculosis. She was a member of the Newhall Chamber of Commerce and a founding member of the Newhall Woman's Club and served as its first press chairman. She continued to work in real estate sales and property rentals and took over Bert Thibaudeau insurance business. She brokered insurance and real estate into the 1950s and she was an active member of the Women's Division of the Real Estate Association. Sackrider often attended Real Estate and Real Estate Conventions. She died in Los Angeles, California, on January 26, 1966 at the age of 89.
Sources: The Enid Weekly (Enid, Oklahoma), 13 January 1898; The Wave-Democrat (Enid, Oklahoma), 14 November 1910 and 13 March 1910; The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), 25 December 1910; "Jessie Nourse Sackrider," SCVHistory.com https://scvhistory.com/scvhistory/cn3201.htm accessed on 29 August 2019; "Jessie Nourse Sackrider," SCVHistory.com https://scvhistory.com/scvhistory/jf3201.htm accessed on 29 August 2019; The Enid Weekly Wave (Enid, Oklahoma Territory), 13 January 1898; "Jessie E. Nourse" Oklahoma County Marriages, 1890-1995, FamilySearch.org https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVP6-W45H accessed on 12 April 2020; U.S. Census, 1910 and 1920, Garfield County, Oklahoma; The Enid Daily Eagle, 4 April 1910; The Alva Weekly Pioneer (Alva, Oklahoma), 30 May 1902; The Enid Morning News (Enid, Oklahoma), 15 October 1910; The Signal (Santa Clarita, California), 22 April 1926.