Betty Abbott was the first female city council member of

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

. She graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School, and was inducted into its hall of fame. She became a member of the Omaha city council in 1965 and stayed a member until 1977. In 1973 she was named the Omaha World-Herald's "Midlander of the Year." In 1975 she was elected to lead the League of Nebraska Municipalities. She went to City Hall on December 30, 1975, in a sweater that read, "Omaha City Council. Six and the Single Girl", a reference to the book ''

Sex and the Single Girl ''Sex and the Single Girl'' is a 1962 non-fiction book by American writer Helen Gurley Brown, written as an advice book that encouraged women to become financially independent and experience sexual relationships before or without marriage. The ...

'' and to the fact that she was the only female member on the seven-member city council. In 1977 she was the first major female contender to run for mayor of Omaha, but she lost. She was also a founding member of the

Henry Doorly Zoo Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium is a zoo in Omaha, Nebraska. It is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and a member of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Its mission is conservation, research, recreation, and educ ...

's board of directors, and served on the board of directors of the National League of Cities, as president of the Nebraska Environmental Control Council, and on the Defense Department's commission on women (which she was appointed to by President

Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...

). She also worked in advertising. She sang and played the piano, and was one of the most popular members of the Omaha Press Club's annual gridiron show. She died in 2005 at age 82, of pneumonia.

References

2005 deaths Omaha City Council members Women city councillors in Nebraska 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American women politicians Deaths from pneumonia in Nebraska 21st-century American women {{Nebraska-politician-stub