Lindy Boggs

Lindy Boggs
United States Ambassador to the Holy See
In office
December 16, 1997 – March 1, 2001
President Bill Clinton
George W. Bush
Preceded by Raymond Flynn
Succeeded by Jim Nicholson
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Louisiana's 2nd district
In office
March 20, 1973 – January 3, 1991
Preceded by Hale Boggs
Succeeded by William Jefferson
Personal details
Born (1916-03-13)March 13, 1916
New Roads, Louisiana, U.S.
Died July 27, 2013(2013-07-27) (aged 97)
Chevy Chase, Maryland, U.S.
Political party Democratic
Spouse(s) Hale Boggs
Children Barbara
Tommy
Cokie
William Robertson
Alma mater Tulane University
Religion Roman Catholicism

Marie Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs, usually known as Lindy Boggs (March 13, 1916 – July 27, 2013), was a United States political figure who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and later as United States Ambassador to the Holy See. She was the first woman elected to Congress from Louisiana. She was also a permanent chairwoman of the 1976 Democratic National Convention, which met in New York City to nominate the Carter-Mondale ticket.[1] She was the first woman to preside over a major party convention.[2]

Boggs was the widow of former Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives Hale Boggs, and the mother of four children: Cokie Roberts (a television journalist); Thomas Hale Boggs, Jr. (a prominent lobbyist); Barbara Boggs Sigmund, a mayor of Princeton, New Jersey and an unsuccessful candidate in the 1982 New Jersey Democratic senatorial primary election (won by Frank Lautenberg); and William Robertson Boggs, who died as an infant on December 28, 1946. Catherine Small Long is the only other woman besides Boggs who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana.

Biographical sketch

Boggs was born on the Brunswick Plantation near New Roads in Pointe Coupee Parish in South Louisiana. She attended Newcomb College at Tulane University in New Orleans. She was a second cousin of deLesseps Story "Chep" Morrison, Sr., the former mayor of New Orleans, Ambassador to the Organization of American States, and three-time candidate for governor of Louisiana[3] who for a time was her husband's law partner.[4]

Lindy Boggs, 1975 Congressional Portrait

On October 16, 1972, Representative Hale Boggs' twin-engine Cessna plane disappeared over Alaska. Boggs was helping a colleague, Nicholas Begich, father of former U.S. Senator Mark Begich of Alaska, to campaign for reelection.[5][6] The first bill that the House passed in 1973, House Resolution 1, officially recognized Hale Boggs' death and created the need for a special election. Lindy Boggs ran successfully as a Democrat for her husband's vacated seat in Louisiana's 2nd congressional district, in New Orleans.

External video
Fresh Air Remembers Former Louisiana Congresswoman Lindy Boggs, Fresh Air[7]

Boggs was elected to a full term in 1974 with 82 percent of the vote and was reelected seven times thereafter until she vacated her office in January 1991. In 1980, she faced her closest challenge from the Republican Rob Couhig, an attorney-businessman who raised some $200,000 for the race, a large amount at that time for a challenger in a difficult district. Lindy Boggs still prevailed, 45,091 votes (63.8 percent) to Couhig's 25,512 (36.2 percent). Another 4.8 percent of the ballots were cast for Democratic former State Representative Clyde F. Bel, Jr., of New Orleans.[8] Otherwise, Boggs polled more than 80 percent in her contested races. After her district was redrawn in 1984 in response to a federal court order mandating Louisiana's first majority-African-American district, she became the only white member of Congress representing a majority-African-American constituency.[9]

She was influential in composing the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974. When the Banking committee marked up the ECOA, she added the provision banning discrimination due to sex or marital status without informing the other members of the committee beforehand, personally inserting the language on her own and photocopying new versions of the bill.[9] She then told the other committee members, "Knowing the members composing this committee as well as I do, I'm sure it was just an oversight that we didn't have 'sex' or 'marital status' included. I've taken care of that, and I trust it meets with the committee's approval."[9] The committee unanimously approved the bill.[9]

Boggs was the first woman to preside over a national political convention, specifically the 1976 Democratic National Convention.[9]

Lindy Boggs in 1984

In 1994, Boggs was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield, one year after her husband had been among the original thirteen inductees.

In 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed her official U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, a position she held until 2001.

In 2005, Boggs's home on Bourbon Street in New Orleans' French Quarter sustained moderate wind damage from Hurricane Katrina. In 2006, she was awarded the Congressional Distinguished Service Award for her time in the House of Representatives.

Boggs was a member of Sigma Gamma Rho, one of the four traditionally African-American sororities in the United States.

The Boggs Center for Energy and Biotechnology Building at Tulane is named in her honor.[10]

Boggs died of natural causes at her home in Chevy Chase, Maryland on July 27, 2013.[11] A funeral Mass was held on August 1, 2013 at St. Louis Cathedral at 615 Pere Antoine Alley in New Orleans. Interment followed later in the day at St. Mary's Cemetery in New Roads.[12] Governor Bobby Jindal ordered all U.S. and state flags in Louisiana to fly at half staff until August 2 in Mrs. Boggs' memory.[13]

References

  1. ↑ IPTV website
  2. ↑ She was followed in that capacity by Martha Layne Collins in 1984, Ann Richards in 1992, and Nancy Pelosi in 2008.
  3. ↑ "Lindy Boggs, Trailblazing N.O. Congresswoman, Passes, July 27, 2013". noladefender.com. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
  4. ↑ Ellen Blue, St. Mark’s and the Social Gospel: Methodist Women and Civil Rights in New Orleans, 1895-1965. (Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press. 2011. p. 142. ISBN 978-1-57233-824-1. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
  5. ↑ "History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, "The Disappearance of Majority Leader Hale Boggs of Louisiana and Representative Nicholas Begich of Alaska"". /history.house.gov. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
  6. ↑ "Hale Boggs - Missing in Alaska". /check-six.com. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
  7. ↑ "Fresh Air Remembers Former Louisiana Congresswoman Lindy Boggs". Fresh Air. NPR. July 29, 2013. Retrieved September 12, 2016.
  8. ↑ Louisiana Secretary of State, Primary election returns, September 1980
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 "Former Congresswoman and Ambassador Lindy Boggs Dies at 97 - ABC News". Abcnews.go.com. 2013-07-27. Retrieved 2015-04-15.
  10. ↑ Tulane University - Boggs Center for Energy and Biotechnology
  11. ↑
  12. ↑ "Corinne "Lindy" Morrison Claiborne Boggs". obits.nola.com. Retrieved July 31, 2013.
  13. ↑ "Jindal orders flags at half staff in honor of Lindy Boggs, July 29, 2013". katc.com. Retrieved July 31, 2013.

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lindy Boggs.
United States House of Representatives
Preceded by
Hale Boggs		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Louisiana's 2nd congressional district
1973–1991 		Succeeded by
William Jefferson
New office Chairperson of the Joint Bicentennial Committee
1975–1977 		Position abolished
Chairperson of the House Bicentennial Commission
1985–1989
Party political offices
Preceded by
Larry O'Brien		 Permanent Chairperson of the Democratic National Convention
1976 		Succeeded by
Tip O'Neill
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
Raymond Flynn		 United States Ambassador to the Holy See
1997–2001 		Succeeded by
Jim Nicholson
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