Alberta Ramage Neely
First LADy of West Virginia (1880–1976)
Alberta Ramage Neely (1880–1976) was the wife of former Governor of West Virginia Matthew M. Neely and served as that state's First Lady from 1941 to 1945. She was known to family and friends as "Bertie."
Formative years
Born as Alberta Clair Ramage on August 27, 1880, in Milford, Pennsylvania, Alberta Ramage was a daughter of Benjamin Franklin Ramage and Almira Lavinia (Hefner) Ramage. Following graduation from Fairmont Normal School (now Fairmont State University), she attended Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia and Emerson College of Elocution in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1903, she married Matthew M. Neely, a native of West Virginia who later achieved nationwide prominence during his long career in politics, a career that began with his election as mayor of Fairmont, West Virginia in 1908.
Political activities and public service
On January 19, 1941, Neely and her husband attended the Inaugural Gala at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. as part of a delegation of thirty-two state executives and state representatives who were celebrating the third inauguration of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As a first lady during World War II, she also sold war bonds and raised money for servicemen's clubs. In May 1944, she and her husband hosted a dinner party in Charleston, West Virginia for the British Ambassador and his wife, who were visiting the United States to raise funds for the British War Relief Society.
After her husband left office, the couple moved to Washington, D.C., where Matthew Neely served in the United States Senate until his death in 1958. In 1963, her portrait was one of eleven new portraits that were hung in the governor's mansion in Charleston, West Virginia. It was officially presented to the state during an unveiling ceremony on July 10 of that year.
“Alberta Ramage Neely” enters the record as first LADy of West Virginia (1880–1976). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Alberta, Ramage and Neely can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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