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Biography of Edith Nourse RogersName: Edith Nourse RogersBirth Date: March 19, 1881 Death Date: September 10, 1960 Place of Birth: Saco, Maine, United States Nationality: American Gender: Female Occupations: legislator, congresswoman, politician Edith Nourse Rogers Edith Nourse Rogers (1881-1960) was the first woman from New England to be elected to Congress. Reelected 17 times, she worked tirelessly for veterans' concerns throughout her congressional career.Edith Nourse Rogers, daughter of Franklin Nourse and Edith Frances Riversmith, was born March 19, 1881, in Saco, Maine. Her family was well-to-do and they moved to Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1895, when her father became the manager for the second largest textile mill in Lowell. Edith was educated by private tutors and then at Rogers Hall School, a private girls' boarding school, graduating in 1899. Her parents sent her to a finishing school at Madame Julien's School in Paris. Upon her return she plunged into the social whirl and was married to John Jacob Rogers in October 1907.John Rogers began a successful law practice before turning to politics and being elected to Congress in 1912. He carried his district six more times before dying in March 1925. Edith Nourse …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…favored, and for the Selective Service Act of 1940, which they opposed. Her actions and dedication to her constituency made her unbeatable in elections. She always won by landslide proportions and was unopposed in three elections, although Massachusetts was increasingly Democratic-dominated.Her health began to fail after 1954; but even at age 79 in 1960 when she approached her 19th election, she was invincible to all challengers except death itself. She died of a heart attack on September 10, 1960, three days before the primary election. Further Reading A gook sketch of Edith Nourse Rogers is Victoria Schuck's entry in Notable American Women: The Modern Period (1980). Also see the popularly-written sketch by Hope Chamberlin, A Minority of Members: Women in the U.S. Congress (1973). Other sources include the Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement Six: 1956-1960 (1980) and obituaries in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Boston Globe on September 11, 1960.Konantz, Gail, Edith Rogers, Winnipeg, Man.: Peguis Publishers, 1981, 1980. |