Election Dashes Hopes of Hundred-Year-Old Women

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102-year-old Geraldine Emmett served as an honorary delegate at the Democratic National Convention. Credit: Twitter: Arizona for HIllary.

On Tuesday, November 8, Rose Orbach, Geraldine Emmett, and Ruline Steininger were prepared to see Hillary Clinton make history.

Orbach, a longtime resident of Bayside, Queens, is 104 years old. She has voted in 16 presidential elections since immigrating from Poland shortly after World War II. She became an American citizen in 1955, cast her first ballot the following year, and has been doing so ever since.

Even being blind has not deterred 102-year-old Geraldine Emmett from having her political say. She served as an honorary delegate at the Democratic National Convention in 2016, making sure the whole world heard her.

Born in 1914 in Prescott, Arizona, Ms. Emmett was in the 6th grade when women gained the right to vote. She spent 42 years working as a school teacher.

“My whole life, I keep asking God, let me have one more chance — if you let me go to the convention [to see the first woman to be nominated for President], I’ll go home to heaven without making a little fuss,” Emmett told the Clinton Campaign during the DNC according to a July 27 Washington Post article. “And when I called one of my former students and I told them that, she said, ‘oh no you won’t — I’ve already ordered your dress to go to the inauguration.’”

Ruline Steininger, 103 years old, wasted no time in casting her vote for Clinton. A resident of Iowa, she cast her vote early and got the chance to meet Clinton. During the meeting, Steininger told the former Democratic nominee “We’re going to put you in the White House,” according to a November 2 CNN article.

“In my first century of life, I’ve seen many incredible things” Steininger wrote to a friend. “A pandemic, two worldwide depressions, a cure for polio, the first Catholic president, a man on the moon, the end of smallpox, an attack on American soil, and a Black president. In my second century, I look forward to seeing a woman president.”

It did not seem so far-fetched for these women’s hopes to become a reality; the nation has come a long way since 1920. But, in the more than a century these three have been alive, they have not seem a female president, and with the election now finished, it’s likely they never will.