Ross in Retrospect
The Rosses lived in Cheyenne in a picket-fenced, gardened, porched, and gabled house at 902 E. 17th Street. Their home, now the residence of Larry and Marti Bressler, is included in the National Register of Historic Places. The Bresslers received the 2008 Dubois Award from the City of Cheyenne for their efforts in restoring the structure. The honor is named for William Dubois, the architect who designed the legislative chambers of the Wyoming state capitol as well as other buildings in Cheyenne. Marti Bressler told the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle: "This is Nellie's house. We're just the caretakers."
Visitors, who are allowed to tour the residence on occasion, are reminded that two governors, William and Nellie Ross, lived there. Marti Bressler says Nellie Tayloe Ross has disappeared from American history textbooks, but she is working to keep her legacy alive. The house has few artifacts from the time the Rosses lived there. The kitchen is the original, even the cabinets and sink. The dining room table, fireplace coverings, the European sideboard, and light fixtures are all antiques of the proper period. The Rosses were not wealthy. William Ross had to borrow money against his life insurance policy. When he died, and his wife became governor, her brother had to supply the money to buy her clothes.
Nellie Ross was not a feminist and did not identify with suffragists in her era. Nevertheless, her biographer, Teva J. Scheer, points out in her biography, Governor Lady: The Life and Times of Nellie Tayloe Ross, that Ross was in fact a modern figure. "While did not begin her adult life intending to 'do it all', she ended up successfully managing a family, the governorship, lecturing in the Chautauqua circuits, a role in national politics and a federal career because her life was divided into several distinct periods that allowed her to concentrate on and enjoy each aspect of her life in turn."
- Note: Miriam Ferguson was elected governor of Texas on the same day as Nellie Tayloe Ross won her election. However, Ross was inaugurated fifteen days prior to Ferguson.
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