Abel, Hazel Hempel, 1888-1966

Hazel Hempel Abel (July 10, 1888 – July 30, 1966) was an American educator and politician in the U.S. state of Nebraska, who served as a member of the United States Senate for fifty-four days in 1954. She was the first woman elected to the Senate from Nebraska, and she remains the shortest-serving senator from Nebraska.

Born Hazel Pearl Hempel in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, she attended the public schools of Omaha, Nebraska and graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1908. She worked as a high school teacher and principal in Papillion, Nebraska, Ashland, Nebraska, and Crete, Nebraska before working as secretary, treasurer, and eventually president of her husband's construction company.

Abel was a delegate to the Nebraska State Republican Conventions from 1939 to 1948 and from 1952 to 1956. In 1954 Abel was elected to be the vice chairman of the State Republican Central Committee. That same year she was elected to complete the unexpired term of Sen. Dwight Griswold, who had died in office. She became the first woman elected from Nebraska to serve in the Senate, as well as the first woman to follow another woman in a Senate seat, as Eva Bowring had previously been appointed to the seat to serve until an election was held. She served in the Senate from November 8, 1954 until her resignation on December 31, 1954. Abel was the fifth of six Senators to serve during the fifteenth Senate term for Nebraska's Class 2 seat (January 3, 1949 to January 3, 1955).

Abel returned to an active civic life in Nebraska. She chaired the Nebraska Republican state delegation at the 1956 national convention. In 1957 Abel was chosen as “American Mother,” an honor which included an invitation to the Brussels International Exposition to address the Mothers of the World. She also served as the chairwoman of the board of trustees of Doane College. She unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor of Nebraska in 1960. In 1963 the University of Nebraska conferred an honorary LLD to Abel for her work as a teacher and political leader. She died in Lincoln, Nebraska.