Jane Mercy (Lillie) Brooks
Mercy Jane Lillie was born to William Leroy and Eulalia (Lucore) Lillie in Marion, Linn County, Iowa, on December 20, 1867. She was educated in Marion public schools. She att3ended Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
She married Charles Haywood Brooks, in Marion, Linn County, Iowa, on June 22, 1886. They soon moved to Wichita where Charles established a law practice. They had four children. Jane Brooks became active in Wichita society, a member of the National Society of the Colonial Dames, and a charter member of the Twentieth Century Club.
Brooks was dedicated to the campaign for woman’s suffrage and accepted the role of president of the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association from 1917 to 1918. She understood the need for the organization to shift its focus after passage of the woman’s suffrage amendment in 1912. At the National 19th Amendment festivities in St. Louis in 1919, preesident Carrie Chapman Catt asked Brooks to chair a new arm of the organization to transition from campaigning to activating women voters. Brooks readily accepted the challenge. She founded the first state chapter of the National League of Women Voters in 1919 in Wichita. She hosted numerous League activities in her home. That chapter set a model for states around the nation. The organization raised funds to support needs of soldiers entering World War I. Other efforts supported suffrage campaigns in Midwestern states.
In Kansas Brooks activated fundraising in every county in the state. She continued to guide involvement of League chapters in the state, and she represented Kansas on the national stage. Brooks died in Wichita, Sedgwick County, on August 20, 1945.
The National League of Women Voters continues today to encourage citizens to take an active role in public policy through education and advocacy> The Kansas League of Women Voters envisioned and supported a new mural to honor the legacy of woman’s suffrage in the Kansas State Capitol.
Entry: Brooks, Jane Mercy (Lillie)
Author: Kansas Historical Society
Author information: The Kansas Historical Society is a state agency charged with actively safeguarding and sharing the state's history.
Date Created: December 2024
Date Modified: December 2024
The author of this article is solely responsible for its content.
