Grace Phillips Pollard

In the 1910s Pollard became active in the women's suffrage movement in the United States, and was a member of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia.^[8] She was part of a committee to promote the viewing of the film Your Girl and Mine, a 1914 film promoting woman's suffrage.^[9] Virginia women won the right to vote in August 1920 when the Nineteenth Amendment became law and would go on to vote in the presidential election that following November.^[10][11][12]

Pollard became First Lady of Virginia in 1930. As first lady, she was involved in historical preservation and horticultural beautification pursuits.^[13][14][15] She supervised the planting of dogwoods and boxwoods on the grounds of the Virginia State Capitol and the Executive Mansion. She was also a collector of fine art, including a sculpture by Attilio Piccirilli.^[16] Pollard suffered from severe arthritis and used a wheelchair by the time she was first lady.^[17][15]

Pollard died at the Executive Mansion in 1932, aged 58 or 59.^[6][17] She is buried in her family plot in Cedar Grove Cemetery in Portsmouth. After her death, the Virginia General Assembly passed a bipartisan joint resolution in remembrance of her and in honor of her service as the first lady of Virginia.^[14][18][19] Because of Pollard's work, dogwoods now line Virginia's highways.^[14]