Luella Cotton collection 1954-1974.
(Unknown)

This collection is arranged by subject.

Processing Information: Collection processing completed 2015/09/16 by Laura Eliason. EAD finding aid created 2015/09/16 by Laura Eliason.

This collection is open for research.

This collection includes letters, papers, news clippings, tickets and programs ranging from 1955 to 1970 regarding Luella Cotton's Democratic Party political activities. She received correspondence from across Indiana from fellow Democrats serving on county and state committees and from individuals working for the Democratic National Committee. The collection includes Cotton's correspondence with Indiana state politicians Larry Conrad, S. Hugh Dillin, Marie Lauck, Jack H. Mankin, Albert A. Steinwedel, and Matthew Welsh. She corresponded with Indiana's members of Congress Birch Bayh, Jr., John Brademas, Vance Hartke, and Andrew Jacobs, Jr. and with other Democratic leaders including Hubert H. Humphrey, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson. Other letters of note received by Cotton are from Pauline Gore, wife of Albert Gore Sr., William H. Hays Jr., and Lester Hunt of the Indianapolis Star newspaper.

Luella Cotton collection, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Indiana State Library

Legal title, copyright, and literary rights reside with Rare Books and Manuscripts, Indiana State Library, Indianapolis, IN. All requests to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted to Rare Books and Manuscripts.

Louella Goodhart Cotton was born March 31, 1903 in Orrville, Ohio to Ulysses and Orinda Jane Goodhart. She met and married the Rev. J. Harry Cotton (1898-1982) while attending Wooster College and they had two daughters. Cotton was active in the Democratic Party while living in Crawfordsville, Indiana in the 1950s and 1960s and was the first woman in the state to serve as county chair for the party. She also served as Vice-Chairman of the Indiana Democratic State Central Committee and Chairman of the Women's Division. Cotton was the first woman to serve as principal clerk of the Indiana House of Representatives and she also served as secretary of the state Senate. She passed away at the age of 91 in Rydal Park, Pennsylvania.Sources:Drill, Herb, and Bill Price. "Louella G. Cotton, Active in Politics." Philly.com. Last modified November 10, 1994. Accessed September 10, 2015. http://articles.philly.com/1994-11-10/news/25867904_1_lansdowne-polio-patients-nursing. "Luella Cotton." Crawfordsville Journal Review November 4, 1994, 2A."Welsh Bestows 'Sagamore' Title on Louella Cotton." Crawfordsville Journal Review December 17, 1964, 1.

This collection was received by Rare Books and Manuscripts as a donation from Mrs. Luella Cotton on 1979/01/02.

No further additions are expected.