Ida May Fuller
Template:Short description Template:For Template:Infobox person
Ida May Fuller (September 6, 1874 – January 31, 1975) was a Vermont schoolteacher and legal secretary. She was most notable as the first beneficiary of recurring monthly Social Security payments.
Early lifeEdit
Fuller was born at her family's Jewell Brook Road farm in Ludlow, Vermont, on September 6, 1874, the daughter of Henry W. Fuller and Laura (Haven) Fuller.<ref name="Reformer">Template:Cite news</ref> Fuller's family traced its American roots to Mayflower passengers Samuel and Edward Fuller, and to Peregrine White, the first child born in America to English Pilgrim parents, in 1620.<ref name="Reformer"/> She attended school in Ludlow and graduated from Black River Academy, where her contemporaries at the academy included Calvin Coolidge.<ref name="Reformer"/><ref name="Firsts">Template:Cite book</ref> After her graduation, Fuller became a schoolteacher in Ludlow.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1903 and 1904, Fuller was a student in the business college course at the Pernin Institute of Shorthand and Bookkeeping in Boston.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Efn
CareerEdit
In 1905, Fuller became a stenographer, legal secretary, and bookkeeper at the Ludlow law firm of John G. Sargent, William W. Stickney, and Paul A. Chase.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> During Sargent's service as Vermont Attorney General from 1908 to 1912, Fuller was his legal secretary and stenographer as he traveled throughout the state to carry out the duties of his office.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In addition to her career as a legal secretary, Fuller was active in Ludlow's Baptist church, including terms as treasurer for missionary activities and church auditor.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Fuller was also involved in civic causes, including serving as treasurer for Ludlow residents who pledged funds to pay for Chautauqua lecturers to visit the town each summer.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She also took part in local business ventures, including the Ludlow Insurance Agency, of which she was an original incorporator.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Fuller worked under Social Security just shy of three years from the spring of 1937 to November 1939 and paid a total of $24.75 (Template:Inflation) in Social Security taxes.<ref name="Contributions">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She filed her retirement claim on November 4, 1939, aged 65; while visiting Rutland, she stopped at the regional Social Security office to ask about benefits.<ref name="First">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She later observed: "It wasn't that I expected anything, mind you, but I knew I'd been paying for something called Social Security and I wanted to ask the people in Rutland about it."<ref name="First"/> Her application was transmitted to the Claims Division in Washington for adjudication.<ref name="First"/> After approval, it was sent to the Treasury Department.<ref name="First"/> Claims were grouped in batches of 1,000, and a certification list for each batch was sent to Treasury.<ref name="First"/> Fuller's claim was the first one on the first certification list, so the first Social Security check (check number 00-000-001), dated January 31, 1940, was issued to Fuller in the amount of $22.54 (Template:Inflation).<ref name="First"/>
Later lifeEdit
During her retirement, Fuller collected a total of $22,888.92 (Template:Inflation) in Social Security benefits.<ref name="Contributions"/><ref name="First"/> As monthly payments increased in the 1950s and 1960s, Fuller typically received the first check issued for the new amount, which was usually the subject of news reports.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> When she received the first check following a September 1965 increase in monthly benefits, it arrived with a letter from President Lyndon Johnson, who also called Fuller to extend good wishes on her birthday.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Fuller never married and had no children.<ref name="First"/> She lived most of her life in Ludlow and spent the last eight years of her life living with her niece, Hazel Perkins, in Brattleboro.<ref name="First"/> Fuller died in Brattleboro on January 27, 1975, and was buried at Pleasant View Cemetery in Ludlow.<ref name="Reformer"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>