Fuller, Minnie Rutherford (1868–1946)

American social reformer. Name variations: Minnie Oliver or Minnie Ursula Oliver; Minnie Rutherford; Minnie Ursula Oliver Scott Rutherford Fuller; Minnie Scott. Born Minnie Ursula Oliver, Jan 25, 1868, in Ozark, Arkansas; died Oct 15, 1946, in Brookline, Massachusetts; dau. of James M. and Mattie A. Hale Oliver; attended Sullins College; studied law at universities of Chicago, California, Harvard, and Leipzig; m. Omer H. Scott, 1882 (died c. 1887); m. William B. Rutherford (lawyer), 1889 (div. c. 1909); m. Seabron Jennings Fuller (surgeon), 1915 (died 1932); children: (1st m.) 1 daughter (b. 1882).

Legally trained and admitted to the bar, became national superintendent of Woman's Christian Temperance Union's (WCTU) Department of Juvenile Courts, Industrial Education, and Anti-Child Labor (1907); was president of state WCTU (1913–25) and editor and publisher of WCTU journal, Arkansas White Ribboner; successfully led campaign for Arkansas law permitting counties to establish juvenile courts (1911); helped found Arkansas Conference of Charities and Correction (later Conference on Social Welfare, 1912), serving as 1st vice president, then as president (1913–14, 1922–23); helped organize Political Equality League of Little Rock and served as 1st vice president when League grew into Arkansas Woman Suffrage Association (c. 1914); influenced passage of primaryelection suffrage for women (1917); was member of Arkansas Women's Democratic Club, becoming 4th District chair (1933); as legislative chair for prominent women's groups, sponsored mother's pension bill, minimum-wage act, and bill admitting women to legal practice; generally credited with passage of laws establishing Girls' Industrial School (1917), equal property rights for women, and equal guardianship of children.