“Faithful, gentle, good,
Wearing the true rose of womanhood.
Her friends called her ‘Gert.’”

To anyone looking at a portrait of Gertrude Dills McKee, the nickname would seem a misnomer. Certainly, the somber lady with the pincenez glasses, gracefully sculpted hair, ascot and dress with embroidered roses - the solemn woman who gazes out at you from the wall of the Used Books store on Main Street in Sylva - this isn’t a ‘Gert!”

But then, that is what time, with the connivance of history, does to all public figures. Gradually, the color is leached away leaving us with a stiff effigy. We seem more comfortable with “manageable history,” something trapped like a dried specimen in a display case - something remote like the historic marker in downtown Sylva that notes Gert’s accomplishments and the location of the place where her home once stood.

How “human” was Gertrude Dills McKee? Did her life once pulse with laughter, tears, and humor?
Well, consider the incident of the flypaper.

When Gert was a student at Peace College in Raleigh, she once spent her modest allowance on flypaper. When her fellow students were in bed, Gert placed the sticky strips before each door, tip-toed down the hall and rang the fire alarm. Suddenly, the halls were filled with girls in long nightgowns and bare feet, flapping about in confusion. President Dinwiddie was not amused.

Now, let’s go back a bit further to Gert as a child in Dillsboro. One of her favorite activities was acting as a kind of town crier. She and her younger sister Beulah would go from house to house informing the residents of the births, accidents, and deaths in the village. Gert told her sister that she liked the attention - the way that people looked at her when she made her announcements - interest, surprise, shock. (It may be that we see here the emergence of the orator that would mesmerize the Senate in Raleigh!)

Gert also supplemented her education by monitoring the guests of the Mount Beulah Hotel (now the Jarrett House). When someone registered who was knowledgeable in art, literature, music, and mathematics, she plied them with questions, learning endless details that would contribute to her good grades at Peace. She played baseball, sang, and played the piano. At an early age she excelled in what was then called “declamation.” Gert could talk!

The daughter of a successful businessman and public figure, Gert would go on to marry a successful public figure, merchant and investor, Lyndon McKee, and like thousands of middle-class wives in Western North Carolina at the turn of the century, she would become active in church and civic affairs.
She joined every appropriate club in the region and was instrumental in launching others. She was drawn to the Sylva Methodist Church, taught in the local schools and joined the PTA, and made the local chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy one of the most influential organizations in the Southeast. When the war came, she joined the Red Cross, sold Liberty Bonds, and raised money for the Salvation Army. She raised money for war memorials and was instrumental in establishing Jackson-Lee Day, an event that was celebrated each year on Jan. 19 with oratory, awards, and music.

Looking back on Gert’s career now, she seemed to be predestined to have an astonishing career as a public figure. When the women’s suffrage movement came to North Carolina, the woman who has gained a reputation for oratory and fund-raising in the churches and schools of Jackson County immediately stepped into the front lines. She quickly became a popular speaker - one who could draw a packed house. In every woman’s club in Western North Carolina, Gert cajoled, inspired, and recruited. “Our time has come,” she said. “We will have our rights.”

Ironically, it was Gert’s experience with women’s clubs and the attending need to organize and promote that made this homemaker and mother of two children a gifted politician. Utilizing exactly the same talents that she had perfected as the president of a dozen clubs, she arrived in Raleigh, first as a delegate for women’s issues, and finally as the first woman senator in North Carolina. She quickly parlayed 20 years of experience with educational and civic organizations into an efficient and enviable career of public service.

Altogether, Gertrude Dills McKee was elected to the North Carolina Senate for four terms - she only served three terms since her untimely death prevented her from serving her final call. Between 1931 and 1948, she participated in what would become the North Carolina Senate’s most progressive and significant years of legislation in the state’s history. Governors and fellow legislative members who served with Gert in Raleigh readily acknowledge that the moving force in North Carolina politics during this period was Gert. Why?

Oratory was certainly a factor. Gert could rise and speak on any issue dear to her heart anywhere and at any time. She was noted for her wit and her humor. Possibly, because she was a “new creature” in their midst, many of her peers were reluctant to oppose her. None wanted her disapproval. As her influence grew, she frequently took them to task, addressing them in much the same manner that she had talked to her students in Dillsboro school rooms. (She frequently observed that men were children in many respects.) There were instances in which she forced last-minute decisions on pending bills by virtually shaming slow-moving senators to decisive action. On one occasion, when land acquisition for the expansion of Western Carolina College (now Western Carolina University) was at stake, she actually stood before the doors of the Senate, insisting that senators attempting to leave should return and listen to the issues being discussed. She usually got her way.

It is easy to catalogue the remarkable changes that this gifted woman espoused. The problem, of course, is that they cannot all be listed in this article. Here is a severely reduced list: The McKee Child Labor Law that restricted the use of child labor in North Carolina - especially in hazardous environments or when such employment would interfere with proper education; extensive funding (treatment and assistance) for polio victims in Western North Carolina; the development of major highways at a time when tourism (the Great Smoky Mountains) was becoming an economic issue; funding for Western Carolina University at crucial points in its development; radical changes in the treatment and care of the mentally insane (Gert’s visit to Morganton shocked her and made her a powerful advocate for revolutionary changes); the increase of the school term from six months to eight (and finally nine) months; strenuous resistance to legalized gambling and the sale of alcohol in Western North Carolina; legislation that effectively provided free textbooks for school children; radical changes in social security policy; the consolidation of the various divisions of the University of North Carolina. There are many more, but it’s time to stop.

When Gert died of a heart attack on Nov. 27, 1948, she was 63 years old. Her husband, 14 years her senior, had been in declining health for some time and the family had felt that he would die before her. From all reports, they were a devoted couple, and their many friends were fond of reporting the give-and-take humor that was always present in their public appearances. On one occasion, when Lyndon teasingly expressed alarm about the numerous honorary degrees his wife had received, he listed them and noted that he saw one for almost everything except veterinary medicine. “I’ll get that one, too,” said Gert. “After all, I have been living with a jack-ass for 30 years.”

The picture that hangs in the Used Book Store in Sylva has a singular note attached to its back. Apparently, someone had some doubt as to who the lady in the photograph was. The note further states that “someone said she was Gertrude Dills McKee, the first woman senator for the state who used to live in Sylva.” There is an organ at the First Methodist Church that is dedicated to her memory by her husband. The McKee Building at WCU still carries her name. Finally, there is the somber photograph in the Used Book Store, poised and dignified.

Gert was fond of making toasts at dinners. She had one favorite that she used repeatedly for women that she met, admired and praised: Eleanor Roosevelt, Mrs. Josephus Daniels, Lillian Buchanan, the librarian at WCU. The toast seems appropriate for Gert as well: So, here’s to you, Gert: “Faithful, gentle, good./ Wearing the true rose of womanhood.”

(I would like to express my gratitude to George Frizzell, curator of the Special Collections Archives at Hunter Library, Western Carolina University. In addition, I am indebted to Joan Wright Fergeson for her remarkably thorough master’s thesis on Gertrude Dills McKee. Also, my thanks to the First Methodist Church and the Jackson County Library - as well as the Used Book Store in Sylva.)

 

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