Katharine Kennedy Brown

Katharine Kennedy Brown (1891-1986), born in Dayton, was a leading figure in local, state, and national Republican politics. Soon after the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920, she earned a seat on the Montgomery County Republican Executive Committee. She moved up to the Ohio State Republican Central Committee in 1928 and to the Republican National Committee in 1932, and served on both until 1968. She founded the first Republican Women’s Club in the county. (Continued other side)

[Side B]: (Continued from other side) As president of the Ohio Federation of Republican Women from 1940-1971, Katharine Kennedy Brown presided over a rise in membership that, by 1970, included 40,000 women in 369 clubs. Brown was an advisor to many prominent Republican office holders, including Senator Robert Taft, Governor James Rhodes, and President Richard Nixon. In 1921, she married Kleon Thaw Brown (1886-1925). Mrs. Brown was a director of the Dayton Art Institute from 1930 to 1947 and helped found the Comedy Club of Dayton, active from 1916 until 1925.