The first female legislator in North Carolina and the first female legislator in the South.

Born near Black Mountain in 1894, Lillian Exum Clement went to high school in Asheville and studied at Asheville Business College. Working as a sheriff's deputy, she studied law in her spare time, and was admitted to the bar in 1917.

She was the first female attorney in North Carolina without male partners. A local judge gave her the nickname "Brother Exum," which stuck with her throughout her life.

In 1920, the Buncombe County Democratic Party asked Clement, then 26, to run for a seat in the state House of Representatives.

She beat two men in the primary election, essentially guaranteeing a win in Nov. 2 general election in what was then a one-party state. At the time of the primary, the 19th Amendment had not been ratified, so women could not yet vote in the election. 

Taking office in 1921, Clement said she wanted to help women.

"I want to blaze a trail for other women," she said on the day she was sworn in. "I know that years from now there will be many other women in politics, but you have to start a thing." 

Clement introduced at least 17 bills, 16 of which passed. They included measures to require testing of dairy herds and lower the number of years of abandonment required before a divorce.

After marrying Eller Stafford in 1921, Clement did not run for office a second time. She died of pneumonia in 1925, leaving behind a 21-month-old daughter, Nancy.

In 1930, Jackson County voters elected Gertrude Dills McKee as the first female state senator. 

Until 1972, no more than two female legislators served at one time in the General Assembly. That year, nine women won seats in the legislature.

In 1998, a group of pro-choice Democratic women formed a political action committee named Lillian's List in honor of Clement. In 1999, the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources dedicated a historical marker to Clement in Asheville.

The N.C. Council of Women also offers the Lillian Exum Clement Stafford Journalism Award to journalists who cover issues of importance to women. 

SOURCES: North Carolina Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill libraries. "Dictionary of North Carolina Biography," Volume 5. Lillian's List biography.