Author Marion Elliott Deerhake arrived at the Tyrrell County Library Tuesday to share the story of a female trailblazer in politics whose story has largely been left untold.

Specifically, Deerhake came bearing the story of U.S. House of Representatives of North Carolina’s 8th district’s Jane Pratt, who would become the first woman to be elected to the US Congress from the state.

“She’s something of a forgotten woman here in North Carolina history,” Deerhake began. “She was elected in 1946 as our state’s first woman to serve in Congress. It would take an additional 46 years to elect another woman to congress, that was Eva Clayton.”

Deerhake describes Pratt as a southern woman whose path to power and politics was unusual.

“Pratt was a southern woman who was ahead of her time. She embodied the new self-reliant female who gained the right to vote in 1920. ... she had to learn quickly how to build the essential skills needed to become self-sufficient.”

Born in Morven in An- son County on March 5, 1902, Pratt was the fifth of seven children born on a farm.

In 1911, Pratt’s father moved the family to Rae- ford to start a new career as a mercantilist and entrepre- neur and improve the family’s station.

As Deerhake tells it, Pratt’s father was also inspired to move to Raeford, because he had little hope that all five of his daughters would be able to marry well. Thus, he sought to set them on the path to education and self-sufficiency...