Ruth Bryan Owen (October 2, 1885 – July 26, 1954) daughter of
William Jennings Bryan and Mary E. Bard. Ruth, a
Democrat, became
Florida’s (and the
South's) first woman representative in the
United States Congress in 1929, coming from Florida’s 4th district. Representative Owen was also the first woman to earn a seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. In 1933, she became the first woman appointed as a U.S. ambassador to another country when President Roosevelt selected her to be Ambassador to Denmark and Iceland.