Mabel Reid
American Samoan politician
Mabel Coleman Reid (died 9 November 1969), also known by the Samoan name Sinaitaaga, was an American Samoan politician. In 1953 she was one of the first two women elected to the Fono, when she and Zilpher Jennings won seats in the House of Representatives.
Biography
Reid was one of ten children of American Navy sailor William Patrick Coleman and his Samoan wife Amata C. Kreuz. Her brother Peter later served as Governor of American Samoa. She was educated at the Sacred Hearts Academy in Hawaii, and became a stenographer and clerk of the High Court of American Samoa. She married businessman Lealaifuaneva Peter E. Reid, and had two children, Peter and Mabel. In 1947 she became an agent for the new Samoan Area Airways, set up by her brother Lawrence. She also became High Chief of Tali in Pago Pago.
In the 1953 legislative elections, Reid contested the Maʻopūtasi County seat in the House of Representatives, and was one of two women elected to the House alongside Zilpher Jennings. Although she lost her seat to Puiai Tufele in the 1954 elections, she defeated Tufele in the 1956 elections, the only woman to win a seat in the 1956 elections.
The public source identifies “Mabel Reid” as american Samoan politician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Mabel, Reid and American.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q105182719. The first chronological checks are 1969, 1953, 1947 and 1954.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mabel Reid” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.