My Great-Aunt Hazel, Suffragette

When my Great-Aunt, Hazel Blecha died in late October 2006, she was 111 years old. She was only thirteen months short of becoming a teenager for the second time. She was born November 30, 1894, back when there were only 44 states in the Union. She also was one of the very last women in America to be denied the right to vote because she was a woman. The presidential election of 1916 was held four weeks before her twenty-second birthday. Great-Aunt Hazel did manage to make up for that by voting in the next twenty-two presidential elections. During election season, it is important to remember how precious the right to vote is.