Ivy Baker Priest


Ivy Baker Priest was an American politician who served as Treasurer of the United States from 1953 to 1961 and California State Treasurer from 1967 to 1975.

Early life

Priest was born in Kimberly, Utah, on September 7, 1905, to Clara Fernley and Orange D. Baker. Her father worked as a gold miner in Kimberly and later as a copper miner in the town of Bingham Canyon. She was active in politics from high school, when she worked to register voters in a mayoral campaign.

Career

Priest was a delegate to the GOP state convention in 1932 and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in Utah on the Republican ticket in 1934. From 1934 to 1936, Priest was elected as Regional Co-Chair of the Young Republican National Federation.
Beginning in 1944, she served for several years as Utah's Republican National Committeewoman and, in 1950, ran for Congress in Utah again and lost for a second time. During Dwight D. Eisenhower's campaign for president, Priest took charge of the women's division of the Republican National Committee and was credited with the successful drive to get out the women's vote, which totaled 52 percent of Eisenhower's victory margin.
She served as Treasurer of the United States under President Eisenhower from January 28, 1953, to January 29, 1961, during which time her signature appeared on all U.S. currency.
In 1967, she became national chair of the Easter Seals.
In 1967 she was elected as a Republican to the office of California State Treasurer, serving two terms from 1967 until 1975.
In 1968 she became the first woman to nominate a candidate for U.S. president for a major political party when she offered California Governor Ronald Reagan's name in a speech before the Republican National Convention.

Personal life

On December 7, 1935, she married Roy Fletcher Priest in Salt Lake City, Utah. On June 20, 1961, she married Sidney William Stevens.
She died of cancer in Santa Monica, California on June 23, 1975. She was buried in the Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Legacy

She was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1954, Priest made an appearance as a contestant on What's My Line?
Priest was the mother of Pat Priest, an actress best known for playing Marilyn Munster in the 1960s television show The Munsters and appearing in the 1967 Paramount motion picture Easy Come, Easy Go with Elvis Presley.