The year is 1966. In that year, the suffragette in question was 93 years of age. I don’t have her name but she was blind and she had five cats (how about that for dedication). Also in that year Karen Peterson was a young woman, although she became a state senator and president of New Castle County Council.
Karen had been asked to take voters to the polling station (polling place) during election day in November 1966. She was working at campaign headquarters with her father. She had just got her driver’s license and was delighted to be taking voters to the polls.
Her first call was to pick up a lady of 93 years of age. The lady insisted that she would not go to the polling place without her five cats. Karen dutifully loaded up the cats into her car (they objected) and took the 93-year-old woman to the polling place as requested. After she had voted she got back in the car and she took her home.
During the return journey the lady asked whether Karen had voted and in response she said that she was not yet old enough to vote. The lady went on to say that when you are old enough it is essential that you never miss a vote. When Karen asked why she said that she’d gone to jail to give her that right.
The old lady explained that she had been suffragette in New York City and been one of hundreds of women who had been imprisoned because they had agitated for women’s right to vote.
Since 1966, Karen Peterson has always voted and she’s always remembered that journey. She writes in Delaware Online that you must vote because “the only thing necessary for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing. Vote! The world is run by those who show up.”
It’s nice to know that the suffragette who fought for such a good cause liked cats and looked after five of them. It is interesting that she insisted her cats went with her to the polling place. She said she would not leave them at home. I find that very touching. She must have been a fantastic cat guardian despite being blind.
A blind person needs to be organised to look after cats:
