`PARA XPAR@`ÿÿÿÿÿÿ 8TEXT` *Rohde, Ruth Bryan Owen 1885Ð1954 writer, public official, and diplomat Born in Jacksonville, Illinois, on October 2, 1885, Ruth Bryan was the daughter of William Jennings Bryan, from whom she learned at an early age of public speaking, campaigning, and politics. She grew up from 1887 in Lincoln, Nebraska, and then, during her fatherÕs public service, in Washington, D.C. She attended the University of Nebraska from 1901 until her marriage in 1903 to William H. Leavitt, an artist; they were divorced in 1909. In May 1910 she married Major Reginald A. Owen, a British army officer (he died in 1927). During the first year of World War I she served as secretary-treasurer of the American WomanÕs War Relief Fund in London. From 1915 to 1918 she was a volunteer nurse with British forces in the Middle East. In 1918 she and her husband settled in Florida, and in 1919 she began lecturing on the Lyceum and Chautauqua circuits. She was active in numerous civic and patriotic groups as well. In 1925 she became vice-president of the board of regents and in 1926 an instructor in public speaking at the new University of Miami. After an initial defeat in 1926 Ruth Owen ran successfully as a Democrat for the congressional seat of FloridaÕs Fourth District in 1928. She was the first woman ever elected to Congress from the Deep South. She was reelected in 1930 but defeated in the Democratic primary in 1932. In 1931 she published Elements of Public Speaking. In April 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her U.S. minister to Denmark. On her confirmation by the Senate she became the first woman to represent the United States to a foreign country. (Sixteen years later Eugenie Moore Anderson would become the first U.S. ambassador.) She retained the post until August 1936, when she was obliged to resign because of her marriage the previous month to Captain Borge Rohde, a Danish national and army officer. After a national campaign tour in 1936 on behalf of President Roosevelt she resumed lecturing and writing. RohdeÕs others books included Leaves From a Greenland Diary, 1935, Denmark Caravan, 1936, The Castle in the Silver Wood and Other Danish Fairy Tales Retold, 1939, Picture Tales From Scandinavia, 1939, Look Forward, Warrior, 1943, and Caribbean Caravel, 1949. She continued to travel widely and to work for various peace organizations. In 1949 she served as an alternate U.S. representative to the United Nations General Assembly. She died on July 26, 1954, in Copenhagen, shortly after receiving the Distinguished Service Medal from King Frederick IX. îstyl`!5ª5ª!5ªH!Ip 5ªq!I¤!I¿!I !IÞ¶!Iþ 5ªÿ!I!I:!IB!IQ!IY!Iš!I¢!IÀ!IÈ!IÝ!Ié!Iú!Ilink`HYPR ¶