Portia Willis

Portia H. Willis (c.1887–7 July 1970) was an American suffragist, pacifist, lecturer, activist and organiser of the early 20th-century. Biography Portia Willis, born circa 1887, was the second daughter of lawyer, real-estate businessman and Democrat former senator Benjamin A. Willis and Lillie Evelyn Macauley. She was educated at the Anne Brown School and attended, though did not graduate from, Columbia University and Harvard College. Willis involved herself in the New York state suffrage movement from about 1910 through to its successful conclusion in 1917, including organising and giving lecture tours throughout the state, dropping leaflets from aeroplanes, and speaking in other states including Massachusetts in 1914, and New Jersey and Washington, D.C. in 1915. Her relatively high profile, the circumstances of her birth into a well known political family, and the nature of newspaper reporting of the day gave rise to frequent press coverage earning her the soubriquet of "The Prettiest Suffragette in New York State". Her name was entered into New York State's suffrage honor roll in 1931. Her pacifism activities lasted throughout her life as she organised and involved herself in a string of organisations dedicated to world peace. She served as the Grand Marshal for the Women's Peace Parade in 1914. She was a member of the Women's Pro-League Council, which organised in support of the League of Nations. After the 1920 inception of the League, she helped to found and manage the Greater New York branch of the League of Nations Association. Other of her memberships include the New York Board of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and the Round Table on the United Nations, which she chaired from 1950 to 1953.