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1897-1901
Cora English Tanner married John Tanner in an extravagant ceremony days before his inauguration. She had a quick tongue and was a social reformer. Tanner was an elegant hostess and an outspoken reformer, writing a series of protest letters to newspapers in the deep South to chastise them for failing to condemn lynch mobs. She accompanied her husband on tours of Illinois prisons and was critical of the conditions she observed. Three decades later, incoming Governor Henry Horner, a bachelor, chose to escort Cora Tanner to his inaugural ball in 1933.
