Kate Barnard

Catherine Ann "Kate" Barnard was the first woman to be elected as a state official in Oklahoma, and the eleventh woman to be elected to a statewide public office in the United States, in 1907. All ten prior elected women were elected to Superintendent of Public Instruction in four states. She served as the first Oklahoma Commissioner of Charities and Corrections for two four-year terms, the only position that the 1907 Oklahoma Constitution permitted a woman to hold.