In 1921, Risteau, a Democrat, became the first woman elected to the Maryland House of Delegates and served four terms (1922-1926 and 1931–1935) followed by an election to the Maryland Senate in 1935 for a single term.[1][2][7][8] She ran for the Senate first in 1926 but lost to A. G. Ensor.[8][9] She served on several committees while in the Senate, including the Committee on Education and the Committee on Agriculture, during her time in the General Assembly, and she was a strong sponsor of women's rights.[2] She sided with the "wet forces" and served on the Senate Temperance Committee and spoke out against Prohibition.[2][10] In 1944, she ran against incumbent Harry Streett Baldwin for Maryland's 2nd congressional district.[11]
Concurrent to her role as a legislator, she served as the first woman on the Maryland State Board of Education for 16 years.[2][3] She was appointed to this position by GovernorAlbert Ritchie in 1922.[2] Risteau was also a clerk of the Circuit Court for Harford County; she was appointed as the first woman clerk in 1938 and served for one year.[2][10][3] In 1939, she was appointed as the first woman State Commissioner of Loans in Maryland.[2][10][4][3]
In 1951, she was elected one final time to the House of Delegates, where she served for another four years.[2][12]
Awards and legacy
In 1987, she was posthumously inducted into Towson High School's Alumni Hall of Fame.[5] In 1988, she was posthumously inducted into Maryland Women's Hall of Fame.[12]
Risteau never married.[4] She was known as "Miss Mary" by contemporaries.[4]
Death
She died on July 24, 1978, at her dairy farm in Jarrettsville at the age of 88.[10] She is buried at William Watters Memorial Church Cemetery in Jarrettsville.[14]