Gov. Gary Herbert said Wednesday he signed a bill into law to evict television inventor Philo T. Farnsworth — or at least a statue of him — from the U.S. Capitol to make way for one of Martha Hughes Cannon, the nation’s first woman state senator.
Each state is allowed to place two statues in the Capitol to honor prominent historical residents. Utah had placed Brigham Young, who led Mormon pioneers to the state, and Farnsworth.
Cannon supporters argued it is time for a Utah woman to be there and pushed Cannon — a Mormon pioneer, polygamous wife and doctor who defeated her own husband when she won her state Senate seat in 1896.