Suzanne La Follette - Early Years and Education

Early Years and Education

La Follette was born on a ranch in eastern Washington State, the fourth of seven children of a pioneer family that owned large wheat and fruit farms in the rolling hills of the Palouse and along the Snake River. She grew up in the wide open spaces of the American West. Her grandfather, John Tabor, was a 49er, having crossed the plains to California after service in the Mexican-American War. Her father, William La Follette, had first come to the Washington Territory as a 16 year old from Indiana. By the turn of the 20th century he was one of the largest growers and shippers of fruit in the Inland Empire.. Along with her older siblings, La Follette began her formal studies at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington where her family had moved into a large house her father had built near the college. When William La Follette was elected to Congress in 1910, she moved with her family to the nation's capital and finished her studies there, graduating from Trintity College(Trinity Washington University) in 1915.