U.S. Sen. John Boozman gave his first speech on the floor of the Senate Monday, a feel-good little oration. It included a historical mistake. In remarking on predecessors, Boozman remembered U.S. Sen. Hattie Caraway of Arkansas as the first woman “to serve” in the U.S. Senate. She wasn’t, though the mistake is frequently made. The first was Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia, who served one day by appointment to fill a vacancy in 1922. Caraway was appointed nine years later to fill a vacancy created by the death of her husband, Sen. Thaddeus Caraway. She then became the first woman elected to the Senate in 1932, with campaign assistance from the Louisiana Kingfish, Huey P. Long.

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