She rocked the vote

The wagon used by Rockville Centre resident Edna Buckman Kearns, a women’s suffragist who was active from 1912 through 1920 in the New York State and national campaigns to get women the vote, is featured in a special exhibit that will run through April 31 at the New York State Museum.

The wagon, which was used by Edna as a speaker’s platform, was also featured in parades at that time as a way to keep the issue of woman’s suffrage in front of the public. People loved the freedom theme of the “Spirit of 1776” that drove home the point that a woman’s work was never done. The wagon is expected to be put on permanent display at the museum in 2012.

“The wagon today symbolizes the continuing need for women to take leadership roles on the local, state, national and international levels," said Kearns’ granddaughter, Marguerite Kearns, who wrote to the Herald from Santa Fe, New Mexico where she is a freelance writer. "This year, 2010, is the 90th anniversary of women voting in the United States.

“We tend to take this for granted,” she added, “and overlook how it took over 70 years of struggle to reach the goal. Contemporary men and women are discovering and rediscovering the efforts of individuals like Edna Buckman Kearns who dedicated their lives to bringing about this change.”

Marguerite said that Edna was married to Wilmer R. Kearns, who worked as a representative of the Kearns motor car company of Beavertown, Penn. They had two daughters, Serena Buckman Kearns and Wilma Buckman Kearns. Edna's brother, Thomas Smith Buckman lived in Rockville Centre as well .

Edna left all her papers, documenting the strong coalitions she formed with men and existing community organizations in Rockville Centre, Nassau County and Long Island to her granddaughter. Those papers are currently being studied by a women's history scholar. Marguerite said she eventually plans to donate her grandmother's memoirs to a woman's history collection so that researchers and Long Island residents can appreciate this piece of local and women's history, and the amount of work that went into the successful suffrage campaign.

The New York State Museum is located in the Empire State Plaza in Albany. For more information on the special exhibit and the museum, call (518) 474-5877 or visit www.nysm.nysed.gov.