Fannie Neal Bickett (née Yarborough) was born on October 11, 1870, in Rose Hill, North Carolina. An attorney by training, Bickett was a social worker, reformer, and civil servant who served as First Lady of the State of North Carolina from 1917 to 1921 during the administration of her husband, Gov. Thomas W. Bickett. She died in Raleigh (Wake County) on July 2, 1941.