Biography

07/26/1873 - 05/27/1962

Flora Morris Vare (R1) Philadelphia County 1925-1928

Personal Life and Education:

Flora Morris Vare, born July 26, 1873, New London, New London County, Connecticut; attended Philadelphia public schools; married, Pennsylvania State Senator Edwin Vare, (d.1922); son, George Augustus Vare, daughter Abagail S. Vare Jones; Housewife; elected, Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1924-1927; died, May 27, 1962 (aged 88) Lankenau Medical Center, Wynnewood, Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania; interment: West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Montgomery County Pennsylvania. (i)

Pennsylvania Politics:

Elected, Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1st District, Philadelphia County, 1925 -1928, chair Library Committee; member, Appropriations, City Passenger Railways, Congressional Apportionment, Elections Finance, Insurance, Law and Order, Municipal Affairs and Public Roads and Highways and Railroads Committees; seat vacated, William Scott Vare (brother in law) defeated, Lawrence E. McCrossin, 1928.

Legacy:

First woman to serve in the Pennsylvania State Senate. Proposed legislation for a Pennsylvania constitutional amendment to provide everyone over the age of 65 with a dollar a day pension, the legislation was not passed. 

A member of the Vare family had held Senate District 1 seat from 1896-1928; George Vare (1896-1908), Edwin Vare (1909-1922) William Scott Vare (1923-1924) known as the "Dukes of South Philadelphia" and Flora Morris Vare (1925-1928) ended the Vare Family’s 37-year political reign of the Senate. 

Cited: 

Dight, J.C., (Director). Whitmore, R.E., (Compiler). (1927). The Pennsylvania Manual, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, pages 964, 966, 972, Biographical Sketches of Senators, page 993.

         (i) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/91323596/flora-morris-vare