Florence Riddick Boys

Florence Alice Riddick Boys (December 3, 1873 – May 10, 1963) was an American writer, clubwoman, suffragist, and state probation officer in Indiana.

Florence Riddick Boys
Born
Florence Alice Riddick

December 3, 1873
Litchfield, Minnesota
DiedMay 10, 1963 (aged 89)
Plymouth, Indiana
Other namesFlorence R. Boys
RelativesCarl Riddick (brother)

Early life

Boys was born in 1873 in Litchfield, Minnesota, the daughter of Isaac Hancock Riddick and Alice Esther Wood Riddick. Her mother died shortly after Florence's birth; her father, a Methodist minister, remarried in 1876. Her brother Carl W. Riddick served one term in the United States Senate, representing Montana, and his son was politician and aviator Merrill K. Riddick.[1] In 1896 Florence Riddick graduated from her parents' alma mater, Albion College in Michigan, where she was editor of the school newspaper and "class poetess".[2][3]

Career
Florence Riddick Boys, from a 1902 poetry collection.

Journalism

After marriage, Boys moved to Plymouth, Indiana, where she lived for the rest of her life.[2] There, she wrote a column for the "woman's page" of the Plymouth Pilot and the Daily Republican, newspapers her husband published.[4] She wrote poetry, advice,[5] recipes, and essays for the papers.[6] Her women's page was syndicated for use in other newspapers in 1920.[7] Her features appeared in more than fifty papers by 1924,[8] and at its peak in 140 newspapers, including one in New Zealand, before she retired the feature in 1942.[9] She attended meetings of the Indiana Republican Editorial Association with her husband.[10]

Suffrage and politics

Boys was county chair the Woman's Franchise League in Plymouth.[3] After the suffrage campaign was won, she became the first Woman's Publicity Director for the Republican National Committee. She wrote for the National Republican, a weekly national newspaper produced by the party.[4][11] "If ever, in wistful mood, I sighed for a medium of expression, my wildest dreams have come true," she wrote of her work as a political press agent, in 1922; "one visualizes the great body of women voters keen to equip themselves in their new field of activity."[12] She was described as "one of the real national authorities of women in politics" when she addressed the Inland Daily Press Association in Chicago in 1923.[13] She was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1924, and an alternate delegate in 1932.[1] She wrote Why Watson? (1925), a book about politician James Eli Watson.[14]

Boys was Indiana's State Probation Officer from 1926[15] to at least 1931, leading work on juvenile delinquency in the state, lecturing, and editing the Indiana Probation News publication.[16][17][18] In the 1930s she chaired the Corrections and Public Welfare departments of the Indiana Federation of Clubs.[19][20]

Personal life

She married lawyer and newspaper publisher Samuel Evan Boys in 1898.[2] They had five children together, born between 1899 and 1914.[7] She died in 1963, aged 89 years, in Plymouth, Indiana.[21] Her papers are in the Indiana State Library.[3]

References
  1. "Riddick-Boys family of South Bend and Plymouth, Indiana". The Political Graveyard. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  2. Chipman, Ida (January 16, 2007). "A Passion for Writing; Florence Boys Spent Early Years as a Typical Housewife". The South Bend Tribune. p. E1, E3. Retrieved October 9, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Finding aid, Florence Riddick Boys Papers, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Indiana State Library.
  4. The Anchora Delta Gamma, Nov. 1924. Delta Gamma Fraternity. p. 100.
  5. Boys, Florence Riddick (October 27, 1922). "A Pen Piping and What To Do". Woman's Enterprise. p. 11. Retrieved October 9, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. Boys, Florence Riddick (1902). "Spring Love Song". In Hamilton, Edward Joseph (ed.). Indiana writers of poems and prose. University of California Libraries. Chicago : Western Press Association. pp. 218–219.
  7. "Publisher's Wife Edits Page". The Fourth Estate: 16. June 5, 1920.
  8. "Famous Woman Writer to Write for Republicans". The Indianapolis Star. August 17, 1924. p. 35. Retrieved October 9, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Untitled news item". The South Bend Tribune. January 8, 1942. p. 18. Retrieved October 10, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "Indiana Editors Hold Winter Session". The Fourth Estate: 8. February 3, 1923.
  11. Freeman, Jo (2000). A Room at a Time: How Women Entered Party Politics. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 98. ISBN 9780847698042.
  12. Boys, Florence R. (November 4, 1922). "Woman Political 'Press Agent' Likes Job". The Fourth Estate: 15.
  13. "Inland Members Foregather at Convention". The Fourth Estate: 6. February 17, 1923.
  14. Boys, Florence Riddick (1925). Why Watson?. Indianapolis: Allied Printing. OCLC 247752859.
  15. "Woman Known Here is Given State Office". Palladium-Item. January 27, 1926. p. 7. Retrieved October 10, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. "Sixth Annual Report of the State Probation Department". Year Book of the State of Indiana for the Year ... Wm. B. Burford. 1926. p. 1104.
  17. "State Probation Officer Speaks". The Tribune. November 16, 1927. p. 1. Retrieved October 10, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. "State Probation Officer to Speak". The Star Press. March 19, 1931. p. 6. Retrieved October 9, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. "Untitled news item". The Indianapolis Star. July 13, 1934. p. 6. Retrieved October 10, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. "Public Welfare Chairman". The Star Press. March 15, 1936. p. 22. Retrieved October 9, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. "Mrs. Florence Boys Dies at Plymouth". Rushville Republican. May 11, 1963. p. 6. Retrieved October 10, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
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