From collection Candidates
Cora Stewart was a nationally known educator and innovator of adult literacy programs. She was devout and believed herself to have a callin, and identified with other leading Progressive era women. Stewart began her literary education work in her hometown and county, Farmers, Rowan County. Her "Moonlight School" idea was so successful that surrounding southern states copied it. In 1901, at the age of twenty-six, Stewart was elected Rowan County's first woman superintendent of schools. Stewart's campaign may have been aided by her politically active brother, mayor of their hometown. She served until 1905, and may not have run again because of domestic troubles. There is some evidence that Stewart was elected again in 1909. She was also the first woman elected president of the Kentucky Educational Association. Stewart was active in the National Education Association and was appointed to an education commission in the Hoover Administration. She strongly believed in a woman's right to work. Stewart was active in Democratic party politics, always lobbying for pro-education platforms. She was a delegate-at-large at the July 1920 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco. She was asked to second the nomination of James B. Cox as the party's candidate for president. Out of respect, Kentucky delegates cast one vote for Stewart for president and one for suffragist Laura Clay. "Miss Clay and Mrs. Stewart Get a Vote Each in Convention," New York Times, July 6, 1920. Stewart was repeatedly spoken of as a candidate for state superintendent of schools. Each time the possibility was raised, she declined, perhaps to continue her national education speaking and lobbying. Stewart was married at the age of twenty to Ulysses Grant Carey. The marriage lasted three years. In 1902, she married Alexander T. Stewart, a teacher. He drank and was abusive and after trying to save the marriage, she divorced him. They had one son who died before his first birthday.
