Zehava Ricci
| Zehava Ricci | ||||||||
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| Preceded by: Tabitha S'hanna |
Praetor Emeritus 1896 - 1915 |
Suceeded by: Hana Egorova |
Zehava Ricci (b. 1869 - d. 1959) (r. 1896 - 1915)
Zehava Ricci was born in New Turin, Remistlin in 1869 as the third of four children to Dr. Joseph Ruggles-Ricci and Dr. Jani Ricci. Ricci had difficulty reading which may have indicated dyslexia, but she taught herself shorthand to compensate and was able to achieve academically through determination and self-discipline.
She studied at home under her mother's guidance and took classes in a small school for girls outside New Turin. In 1884 she entered Nenn College for one year before entering the Framindol Academy as a freshman, graduating in 1889. She wrote an article on French Independence which won literary awards; and won provincial recognition for an essay on Natolya Valin's military techniques. She was active in the M'Chaia youth, and organized a separate M'Chaia Youth Debating Society, which broke up at her graduation. She also wrote out a number of cards signed "Zehava Ricci, Praetor Emeritus".
In her last scholarly work in 1911, One Party for Morindira, Ricci said that the Praetorship "will be as big as and as influential as the woman who occupies it". Ricci also hoped that the Party could be reorganized along ideological, not geographic, lines. "Eight words," Ricci wrote, "contain the sum of the present degradation of our political party: No leaders, no principles; no principles, no party."
While Praetor, Ricci also made one of the more notable social advances in Morindira's history: allowing men to be party members. Previously, only women could hold M'Chaia Party memberships, except in the province of Jaeda, where a man could hold a membership as long as he owned property costing Rt1,000 or more. During Praetor Ricci's rule the first man was admitted M'Chaia Party Membership, Abyran Oldahl.
Death
On October 2, 1915, Ricci suffered a serious stroke that almost totally incapacitated her; she was paralyzed on her left side and blind in her left eye. For a few months at least, she was confined to a wheelchair. Afterwards she could walk only with the assistance of a cane. She resigned from office shorly thereafter, appointing her Grand Vizier to be Praetor. The extent of her disability was kept from the public until after her death in 1959, from another stroke.
