Remembering Nellie May Trent Bush
1888 – 1963
With her husband
Joseph Bush, Nellie May Trent Bush helped establish the town of Parker on the
Arizona side of the Colorado River. They ran the Parker Ferry beginning in 1915
and lived on the “Nellie T” ferryboat with their infant son Wesley.
For 17 years Nellie
operated as a licensed riverboat pilot. She also took flying lessons and with
pilot’s license in hand purchased a Waco airplane, which she found
useful in expediting legal papers from her law offices in Parker to Yuma or
Phoenix.
Graduating from
Arizona State University (then Tempe Normal School) with a teaching
certificate, Nellie taught in the three-room Parker school for four years. In
1923 she passed the bar exam after years of studying law and graduating from
the University of Arizona law school.
“I am a firm believer in women going into politics—the more
the better,” Nellie said in the 1920’s. “They simply have to eliminate some of
their old-fashioned ideas regarding the differences in the sexes.”
Nellie May Trent Bush’s public service:
Arizona House of Representatives
Arizona State Senate
Justice of the Peace
U.S. Commissioner
Parker, Arizona Attorney
Parker, Arizona Magistrate
Parker School Board
Colorado River Water Commission
Arizona Stream and Boundary Commission
United States Presidential Convention Delegate 1932
Although an educated and highly respected member of the
Parker community, Nellie rolled up her sleeves when two of seven
pontoon barges for a roadway bridge over the Colorado River at Parker needed a
coat of waterproof coal tar. During a
controversy over a diversionary dam at Parker, Nellie captained the “Julie B”
riverboat to ferry National Guard Troops ordered by Governor Moeur to stop the
dam’s construction. For this service, the Governor proclaimed her “Admiral of
the Arizona Navy!”
Nellie Bush also championed women’s organizations in Arizona
and served as president of the Arizona Federated Women’s Clubs. Much of the
information included in this article comes from Nellie’s profile included in
the Arizona Business and Professional Women’s Federation publication, Women
Who Made a Difference.
In 1985, Nellie’s son, Wesley commented on his mother’s life
saying in part that she spent many years “in her community teaching Sunday
school class every Sunday in the only church in Parker . . . playing the piano
for church gatherings . . . the endless hours working on her old Underwood
typewriter beside some local citizen who needed legal advice, typing a legal
paper for them, free! She gave far more to the community and the state than she
accepted.”
Affectionately known as Nellie T., she certainly is a woman
well worth remembering.
Sources:
http://arizonabpwfoundation.com/WWMAD.html “Women Who Made a Difference
has been published by the Arizona Business and Professional Women's Foundation
to record and preserve the history of Arizona's working women.” Arizona
Business and Professional Women’s Federation publication, Women Who Made a
Difference
