Follow Us
Like Us
Historical records matching Rose Mofford, 18th Governor of Arizona
view all
Immediate Family
-
ex-husband -
father -
mother -
sister
-
sister
-
brother
-
sister
-
brother
-
Privateex-husband's child -
Privateex-husband's child
About Rose Mofford, 18th Governor of Arizona
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Mofford
Rose Mofford, who was the first woman to serve as governor of Arizona and guided the state during a politically turbulent time, died on Thursday at a hospice facility in Phoenix. She was 94.
A former spokeswoman to Ms. Mofford, Athia Hardt, confirmed the death.
A Democrat in a historically Republican state, Ms. Mofford was governor from 1988 to 1991. She was the elected secretary of state when she took over for Gov. Evan Mecham, a Republican, who had been impeached and removed from office by the Republican-led Legislature. Arizona does not have a lieutenant governor.
“I don’t think she ever really necessarily wanted the spotlight or wanted to certainly be governor,” said Grant Woods, a former Arizona attorney general, “but she believed in public service and she believed strongly in the state, especially the rural areas.”
Ms. Hardt said that when the state “desperately needed healing,” the plain-spoken Ms. Mofford, recognizable by her signature beehive hairdo, “stepped in” and brought a measure of stability to the state government.
“‘Mother Mofford,’ she’d call herself,” she said.
Ms. Mofford did not run for her own term in 1990. She was succeeded by Fife Symington, a Republican, who resigned amid a real estate scandal in 1997. His fraud conviction was later overturned.
Ms. Mofford was the first of four female governors of Arizona over the next two decades. The others were Jane Hull, a Republican; Janet Napolitano, a Democrat; and Jan Brewer, a Republican.
Ms. Mofford had come close to the governor’s office once before. She had been appointed secretary of state when Gov. Wesley Bolin, a Democrat, died in 1977. She was not eligible to succeed him because she had been appointed, so the attorney general, Bruce E. Babbitt, became governor. Elected twice, he served until 1987.
Ms. Mofford’s marriage to T. R. Mofford, known as Lefty, ended in divorce in 1967. They had no children.
She was born Rose Perica on June 10, 1922, in the mining town of Globe, Ariz., about 85 miles east of Phoenix. Her parents, John and Frances Perica, were immigrants from Austria.
As a young athlete, she was a star member of the Arizona Cantaloupe Queens women’s amateur softball team. She was later inducted into the Arizona Softball Hall of Fame twice. She also had an offer to play professional basketball but turned it down.
Ms. Mofford began a five-decade career in state government after high school, starting as a secretary for the state treasurer.
view all
Rose Mofford, 18th Governor of Arizona's Timeline
| 1922 |
June 10, 1922
|
Globe, Gila County, Arizona, United States
|
|
| 2016 |
September 15, 2016
Age 94
|
Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona, United States
|