Marion Martin, founder of the National Federation of Women's Republican Clubs, was a life-long advocate for and an example of what women could contribute to public life.

Born in Kingrnan, Maine in 1900, Martin watched her mother participate in the campaign to secure the right to vote for American women. As an adult, Marion Martin took advantage of women's new political rights. In the 1930's, she earned statewide attention as one of Maine's handful of women legislators, serving two terms each in the Maine House and the Senate. She was prominent not only because she, as a woman, was an anomaly: Martin earned a reputation as one of Maine's most respected and influential state Senators. In 1936, the Maine delegates to the Republican Presidential Convention selected Martin as Maine's Republican National Committeewoman. On the RNC, Martin quickly earned the attention of Chairman John Hamilton.

In 1937, Hamilton selected Marion Martin as his Assistant Chairman and presented her with the challenge of organizing women for the Party. Martin toured the United States to assess the value of the existing Republican women's dubs and found that, unfortunately, the hundreds of clubs were not working in tandem and too often were a divisive, rather than constructive, force for the Party. Martin recommended that the clubs be federated into a national organization affiliated with the RNC. As Assistant Chairman of the RNC, Martin became the Executive Director of the National Federation of Women's Clubs where she served from 1938-1946 (the Federation changed its name to its present form in the 1950s). In her organizing efforts, Martin always placed great emphasis on the need for women to develop party loyalty and for the Party to take women seriously as political players. During her leadership, the Federation grew to include statewide federations from 28 states and the District of Columbia, as well as individual clubs in thirteen additional states.

After leaving the Republican National Committee in 1946, Martin returned to Maine, where she became the first woman appointed state Commissioner of Labor. She was re-appointed seven times, serving until 1972. When she retired, Maine newspapers heralded her contributions to Maine public life, and her example as a woman of achievement. She died in Maine in 1987.