Jane Dee Hull (born Aug. 8, 1935) was the second woman to serve as governor of Arizona, and the first woman to be elected to the position. She is perhaps best known in her role as Governor for signing the death warrants of two foreign nationals, despite international pressure from Germany to a retrial. |
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Born Jane Dee Bowersock in Kansas City, Missouri, she graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in education. She taught elementary school in Kansas and in Navajo Nation schools at Chinle, Arizona. She entered politics in 1978 by being elected to the Arizona House of Representatives as a Republican. She served for seven terms, including two as Speaker, the first female Speaker in Arizona history.
Hull was elected Arizona Secretary of State in 1994 and assumed the office of governor after the resignation of Fife Symington III on September 8, 1997. She was sworn-in by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, herself a former Arizona legislator.
She was elected in her own right in 1998. Her term ended in 2003 and she was succeeded by current Governor Janet Napolitano, who defeated Matt Salmon in the 2002 elections.
An elementary school is named for her in Chandler.
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