Inaugural Impressions
Isabelle Butler Robertson (1884–1956)
Isabelle (also spelled Isabel) Butler was born on August 30, 1884, in Afton, Indian Territory, to Colonel Hardy Hubbard and Mary Reece Butler. She grew up in Miami, Indian Territory, where her father served as mayor. She attended Willie Halsell College in nearby Vinita, and Maddox Seminary in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Isabelle married James Brooks Ayers (J. B. A.) Robertson on November 28, 1917. Robertson, a widow, met Isabelle in Vinita while doing legal work for a client. The couple enjoyed a short honeymoon in Florida. In August 1918, J. B. A. won the Democratic nomination for governor. He defeated Republican candidate Horace G. McKeever and Socialist candidate Patrick Nagle in the general election and was inaugurated governor of Oklahoma on January 13, 1919.
Isabelle was a charming, tactful, gracious, beautiful woman who became a model First Lady. She campaigned for her husband and strongly supported women’s suffrage. The Robertsons resided in Oklahoma City in what is now the Putnam Heights Historic District. In September 1919, they traveled to the East Coast for the inaugural voyage of the SS Tulsa and to present the official silver service to the USS Oklahoma. Although her husband’s term was fraught with strife, avoiding a threat of impeachment at one point, Isabelle’s conduct was universally praised.
J. B. A. served as governor until 1923 and died from cancer in 1938. Isabelle worked in several positions to support herself after her husband’s death, including superintendent of the Western Oklahoma Home for Orphans, secretary of the Commission for the Adult Blind, and postmaster for the state House of Representatives. She also regularly attended St. Luke’s Methodist Church in Oklahoma City. She died on December 15, 1956, and is buried in Resthaven Gardens Cemetery in south Oklahoma City.
Isabelle Butler Robertson, 1919
(16396, Oklahoma Historical Society Photograph Collection, OHS)
