Isabell Masters

Template:Use mdy dates Isabell Masters (January 9, 1913 – September 11, 2011<ref>Notice of Isabell Masters' death</ref>) of Topeka, Kansas, was a five-time perennial third-party candidate (Looking Back Party) for President of the United States.

Masters' five presidential campaigns are the most for any woman in U.S. history.<ref name=telegraph>Template:Cite news</ref> She was a candidate in the 1984, 1992 (339 votes), 1996, 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. In 1996, she was only on the ballot in Arkansas (but also received a few votes in California and Maryland) (752 votes total, 2000). Her 1992 running mate was her son, Walter Ray Masters, and her 1996 running mate was her daughter, Shirley Jean Masters.

Biography

Personal life

Isabell Masters was born Isabell Arch on January 9, 1913, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the daughter of Cora McDaniels (Lewis) and Walter Arch.<ref name=telegraph/><ref name=psn>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Her father, a businessman, was of African American and German descent.<ref name=telegraph/> Masters graduated from Douglas High School in Oklahoma City and received a bachelor's degree in education from Langston University.<ref name=telegraph/><ref name=ok>Template:Cite news</ref> She later earned a doctorate from the University of Oklahoma.<ref name=ok/> An educator by profession, Masters taught in California, New York, Nevada and Kansas during her career.<ref name=ok/> She specifically worked in schools in the American cities of Pasadena, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Kansas City and Syracuse, New York.<ref name=telegraph/>

Masters married Alfred Masters, who became the first African American to enlist in the United States Marines when he was sworn in on June 1, 1942.<ref name=telegraph/><ref name=psn/> They had six children together, but their marriage disintegrated during the late 1940s.<ref name=telegraph/> She raised six children as a single mother.<ref name=telegraph/> Masters obtained her master's degree in higher education from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).<ref name=telegraph/> She later earned a doctorate from the University of Oklahoma during her late 60s.<ref name=telegraph/><ref name=ok/>

Presidential campaigns

In 2000 she was a write-in candidate in Kansas alongside George W. Bush and Al Gore. Her vice-presidential running mate was her daughter, Alfreda Dean Masters.

She made several unsuccessful attempts at winning the Republican primary elections for President. In 1996 she was on the ballot in Oklahoma and won 1,052 votes (Bob Dole won by a large margin).<ref>Ballot Access News, Oklahoma State Election Board 1996 Republican Race for President Template:Webarchive</ref>

In addition to her presidential campaigns, Masters ran for the city council in Topeka, Kansas, and was once a candidate for Mayor of West Palm Beach, Florida.<ref name=ok/>

Masters' six children include Rev. Thomas A. Masters Sr. of the New Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Riviera Beach, Florida, the current mayor of Riviera Beach who was a community leader protesting efforts by the George W. Bush legal team to stop the Florida election recount following the controversial 2000 United States presidential election, and political scientist Cora Masters, who became the fourth wife of former Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry in 1994, but they later divorced.<ref name=telegraph/>

Isabell Masters died in her sleep on September 11, 2011, at a nursing facility in Lake Worth, Florida, at the age of 98.<ref name=pbp>Template:Cite news</ref> She had lived with her son, Riviera Beach Mayor Thomas Masters, for the last four years of her life.<ref name=pbp/>

External links

• Frantzich, Stephen E. (1996). The C-Span Revolution Template:ISBN
• DiPaola, Jim "Masters' universe" City Link May 15, 2003
• Politics1: Presidency 2000 – The Independent Candidates
• Wheeler, Tim "Election protests continue in Florida" People's Weekly World