Florence was born in 1871 in Bloomington, and in 1895 married Frank H. Funk of Bloomington.
Florence Mae Risser Funk
Credit McLean County Museum of History
Living on the east side of Franklin Park, Frank and Florence established themselves as progressives while being very active in the community.
Risser Funk became very involved in the suffrage movement locally and statewide, which led her to being instrumental in the passage of the 1913 Illinois Suffrage Act. That gave the women of Illinois the right to vote for the president of the United States, before the passage of 19th Amendment, which gave women the constitutional right to vote. Illinois was the first state east of the Mississippi to give women this right.