THE FLAGLER TRIBUNE
Bunnell, Florida
Thursday, July 29, 1954

 

Mrs. Ruth Bryan Owen Rhode, 68, America's first woman diplo­mat and one time congresswoman from Florida, died this week following a heart attack.

Mrs. Rhode, daughter of the late William Jennings Bryan, was teaching public speaking at the University of Miami from 1926 to 1928, then ran successfully for a Florida seat in Congress from the old Fourth District which at that time included Flagler county.

Her defeat in 1932 was followed shortly by her appointment as minister to Denmark.

She resigned in 1936 after marrying Capt. Borge Rohde, of the late King Christian X's palace guard. The couple returned to America where Mrs. Rhode resumed her career of writing and lecturing.

Mrs. Rhode's, appointment as an U. S. envoy by President Roosevelt capped a distinguished career as a member of Congress, lecturer, author, war nurse and university teacher.

The appointment as envoy also marked a milestone in the emergence of women into diplomacy. Only one other woman in the world previously had been a ranking envoy-Alexandra Kollontay, named Soviet minister to Norway in 1923.

Mrs. Rhode was married three times and was the mother of four children. Her first marriage to Artist William Homer Lewitt, ended in divorce in 1909. The following year she married Reginald Owen, a major in the British Army's Royal Engineers, following him to Egypt during World War I.