Complex sentence: Annie Webb Blanton (1879--1945)--professor of English from 1901 to 1918, suffragist, and author of a series of grammar textbooks--was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1918, making her the first woman in Texas elected to statewide office.
Split into simpler sentences: Annie Webb Blanton (1879--1945)--professor of English from 1901 to 1918, suffragist, and author of a series of grammar textbooks. Blanton was elected Superintendent of Texas Public Instruction in 1918, making her the first woman in Texas elected to statewide office.