ROSALIE ENOS KELI’INOI DIED-1ST WOMAN ELECTED TO HAWAIIAN TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE
Born September 18, 1875, in Wailuku, Maui, Rosalie was a student at St. Anthony’s School for Girls in Wailuku, but eloped at around the age of 18. She had seven children with her husband before they divorced in 1916. Rosalie remarried to Samuel Keli’inoi, a successful Republican party politician, and moved to Kaua’i in 1917. About this time, her interest in politics grew and, in 1925, Rosalie became the first female elected to the Territorial House Legislature. During her one term in office, she introduced 16 bills many of which concerned improving the plight of women in the Hawaiian Islands. Her most important contribution was introducing what became Act 274. Prior to this act, a married woman had no property rights in Hawai’i. This act guaranteed women the right to own property and designated a woman’s property as separate from her husband’s. Rosalie was fluent in Hawaiian, skilled at kapa kuiki kuiki (Hawaiian quilt making), and an accomplished pianist. She died in Honolulu.
Source: Melody Lassalle, Melody, “Portuguese Hawaiian Profile: Rosalie Enos Keli’inoi, First Female Legislator,” Your Island Routes (2003). Retrieved 7/18/2019, http://www.yourislandroutes.com/articles/profileenos.shtml
Photo: Author and date. Likely between 1900 and 1915. Source: https://www.thegardenisland.com/2013/12/01/lifestyles/rosalie-enos-lyons-keliinoi/. Likely Public Domain in the US: Pre-1/1/1925. Likely Public Domain elsewhere where copyright term is author’s life plus 70 years or less. Also, Fair Use: This is being used for non-commercial and educational purposes only. The author is unknown and the subject is deceased. The photograph is used simply to identify the subject. No other publicly available photographs of the deceased exist. There is no diminishment in its value by this use.