In the 1950s, the signature of one Utahn was worth a bundle. In fact, the name of Ivy Baker Priest on a bill was assurance you had a bona fide piece of American money.
During her two terms as U.S.treasurer, 1952-60, a replica of Priest's signature appeared on $62.8 billion worth of currency. Even so, she didn't achieve one of her desires - signing a $10,000 bill. None of the top-of-the-line bills were printed during her tenure. Five-hundred-dollar bills were the largest denominations to bear the Priest name.
Priest was well-known for her devotion to women's causes, even though full-blown "women's lib" was a future phenomenon. She was once asked if she didn't wish a woman's likeness could be featured on at least one of the denominations of currency. Her reply: "I don't mind if men have their faces on the bills as long as women have their hands on them."
For once in her life, the Bountiful housewife-turned politician actually had money to burn. Dis-posing of currency too damaged to stay in circulation was part of her job.
Being the highest-ranking female in the Eisenhower administration was not bad for a Utahn who always credited her early poverty for the impetus to become involved in politics. She gained insight into the problems of working women as she became successively a telephone operator, mer-chandise buyer and night- school teacher to help her mother provide for six younger siblings after her father's death. She then married Roy F. Priest and had three children of her own to help support.
At the same time, in an era when women were struggling with the stay-at-home philosophy vs. pressure to enter the work force, Priest found ways to take the debate to new levels. As she rose through the ranks of Republican leadership, her ability to see how decisions made at high levels affected Americans in the working ranks became her greatest asset.
The daughter of O.D. and Clara Fernley Baker, she was born in the obscure community of Kimberly, Piute County. Her father was a miner, and the family moved to Bingham when Ivy was small.
Her mother first steered her into community service. Young Ivy was recruited to baby-sit, run errands or do housework for women so they could make it to the polls - only women who were going to vote Republican, of course.
From this peripheral involvement to activity in the Young Republicans was a logical next step. In the early 1930s, Priest became increasingly entrenched as a grassroots worker at the local, state and regional levels. She later claimed door-to-door campaigning and stuffing envelopes actually were her favorite tasks.
In 1938, Utah Industrial Commissioner William M. Knerr named her to the state's Minimum Wage Board, where she became instrumental in formulating Utah's first women's minimum wage law.
By 1950, with many years of practical politics behind her, Priest was ready to challenge another Utah woman, Reva Beck Bosone, for one of the state's seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Her campaign issues reflected concern for growing national socialism, Communism (she wanted all Communists off government payrolls), government handouts and protection of American business. In the end, Bosone kept her seat, but Priest had moved a notch up the ladder of political sophistication.
In the critical post-war election of 1952, she was a member of Utah's national Republican delegation but quickly found herself outside the Beehive State fold. The majority of Utah's delegates stood behind Sen. Robert A. Taft, considered a shoo-in for the GOP nomination. Priest was convinced that Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, a latecomer to the race, was a better choice. She was able to persuade some of the Utahns to change their votes to support Eisenhower, the eventual victor.
During the campaign, Priest got another assignment that ultimately brought her to Ike's attention. As campaign co-chairman, she was charged with getting American women behind his candidacy. She traveled the country exhaustively tooting the Eisenhower horn and became one factor in the final results. In the 1952 election, the number of women voters increased by 40 percent over 1948, and 52 percent of the female voters plunked their X by Eisenhower's name.
"Women are going to the polls this year because, first of all, they want peace, and second, they want a change for the better," Priest told the New York Times for an Aug. 21, 1952, article. "Women know that inflation has riddled their household budgets, and the best cure would be the all-out attack of a Republican administration on waste in government and public expenditures."
Post-election, her first objective was to try to persuade Eisenhower to put women into top offices. But she didn't expect that his first female appointee would be herself. Called to visit Eisenhower, she had fore-armed herself with arguments favoring women in high office. His request that she serve as U.S. treasurer blew them all out of her mind, she later recalled.
One of the first items of business after the appointment was to submit several specimens of her signature to the U.S. Bureau of En-graving and Printing so one could be selected for bills printed during her term. She spent an evening at the dining room table with her husband and three children kibitzing, writing "Ivy Baker Priest" about a hundred times.
During her tenure in the national office, she was often included in affairs of state. On one occasion, she was seated next to Nina Krushchev, wife of Nikita, Russia's top official.
Nina asked if she was the "lady who signs all U.S. paper currency." Priest acknowledged that was, in fact, her job, then reached into her purse and pulled out a crisp $1 bill bearing her signature. In exchange, Nina dug for a 10-ruble bill worth the same amount, wrote on it, "with my best wishes for you" in English and gave it to her.
The Women's Newspaper Editors and Publishers Association named Priest one of the country's 20 outstanding women of the 20th century, and she also was designated national Mother-in-Law of the Year at one time.
She was involved in a number of organizations devoted to political activity, children's issues and safety. As a member of the National Safety Council's board, she was especially red-faced when she got a speeding ticket near Brady, Neb. She paid the $14 and slowed down.
After eight years in office, Priest was welcomed home to Bountiful, where a gala celebration of her accomplishments was held in the local high school.
She was once again in the spotlight as she became the first woman to nominate a national candidate - Ronald Reagan for president, Miami, 1968.
"I've never felt out of place," she told reporters who had questions about one of her gender being in such a position. "If I'm here, I have a reason for being here."
Within a few years of the winding-down of her national political career, she moved to California, where she successfully ran - twice - for state treasurer. She campaigned in a dollar bill-trimmed hat as a reminder to voters that she was qualified for the job. She was the first woman elected to the position and was instrumental in stream-lining the office and generating significant increases in the state's investment income.
Although she had married Sidney Stevens, a California businessman, after the death of her first husband, she petitioned a court to retain Ivy Baker Priest as her legal name. The name made good grist for the news media, which interpreted it as Ivy (as in green) Baker (as in the woman with the dough) and Priest (as in, "our money's in good hands.")
On June 23, 1975, she died in California of cancer at the age of 69, ending a career that had taken her from a humble Utah home to the highest echelons of American leadership.