Mary “Mollie” Godat Bellamy was Wyoming’s first woman state legislator. A Democrat, she was first elected to serve a two-year term in the House of Representatives in 1910 and then again in 1918.
Bellamy was a Laramie high school teacher who later served as the superintendent of schools in territorial Albany County. In the Wyoming State Legislature, she focused on issues affecting the welfare of women and children, as well as those that increased funding for the University of Wyoming.
Mary’s husband Charles, a civil engineer, served as the state’s first water commissioner under State Engineer Elwood Mead. “Lake Marie” west of Laramie was so named by Bellamy in honor of his wife while he dubbed another nearby body of water “Bellamy Lake.”
Learn more about Mary Bellamy and about Wyoming water history