Lindy Boggs | |
|---|---|
 Portrait, 1997 | |
| 5thUnited States Ambassador tothe 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 theU.S. House of Representatives fromLouisiana's2nd district | |
| In office March 20, 1973 – January 3, 1991 | |
| Preceded by | Hale Boggs |
| Succeeded by | William J. Jefferson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Marie Corinne Morrison Claiborne (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. |
| Party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4, includingBarbara,Tommy, andCokie |
| Education | Tulane University (BA) |
Marie Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs (March 13, 1916 – July 27, 2013) was a politician who served as a member of theU.S. House of Representatives and later asUnited States Ambassador to the Holy See. She was the first woman elected to Congress fromLouisiana. She was also a permanent chairwoman of the1976 Democratic National Convention, which met in New York City to nominate theCarter-Mondale ticket.[1] She was the first woman to preside over a major party convention.[2]
Boggs was the widow of formerMajority Leader of the United States House of RepresentativesHale Boggs. She is one of three female U.S. Representatives from Louisiana, the others beingCatherine Small Long andJulia Letlow, each of whom took office in special elections after the death of their husbands.
Boggs was born asMarie Corinne Morrison Claiborne on March 13, 1916, on the Brunswick Plantation nearNew Roads inPointe Coupee Parish in SouthLouisiana, the daughter of Corinne Morrison and Roland Philemon Claiborne, a prominent lawyer.[3][4] Claiborne's father died when she was just two, but her resemblance to her father earned her the nickname "Lindy," short for the female version of Roland, "Rolinde."[5]
She graduated fromNewcomb College, the women's college atTulane University inNew Orleans in 1935.[6] In 1934, Lindy Claiborne metThomas Hale Boggs at Tulane where the pair worked as editors for the school newspaper,The Hullabaloo.[7] Boggs attendedTulane Law School and earned his law degree in 1937 while Claiborne worked as a school teacher after the pair graduated from Tulane. Claiborne and Boggs were married on January 22, 1938 inNew Roads, Louisiana.[7] They had four children:Cokie Roberts (a television journalist);Thomas Hale Boggs, Jr. (alobbyist);Barbara Boggs Sigmund, a mayor ofPrinceton, New Jersey,[8] and an unsuccessful candidate in the 1982 New Jersey Democratic senatorial primary election (won byFrank Lautenberg); and William Robertson Boggs, who died as an infant on December 28, 1946.[9]
In 1940, Hale Boggs won a seat in the House of Representatives and the Boggs family relocated to Washington, D.C. Boggs lost his 1942 re-election bid, but subsequently returned to win a seat as the representative ofJefferson Parish in 1947 where he served until his death.[5]
On October 16, 1972, Representative Hale Boggs's twin-engineCessna plane disappeared overAlaska. Boggs was helping a colleague,Nicholas Begich, father of future U.S. SenatorMark Begich of Alaska, to campaign for reelection.[10][11] The first bill that the House passed in 1973, House Resolution 1, officially recognized Hale Boggs's death and created the need for aspecial election. Lindy Boggs ran successfully as aDemocrat for her husband's vacated seat inLouisiana's 2nd congressional district, in New Orleans.
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Fresh Air Remembers Former Louisiana Congresswoman Lindy Boggs,Fresh Air[12] |
Boggs was elected to a full term in 1974 with 82 percent of the vote and was re-elected seven times thereafter until she vacated her office in January 1991.[13] 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.[14] She announced her retirement from public office in 1990. She was succeeded byWilliam J. Jefferson.
She was influential in composing theEqual 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.[14] 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."[14] The committee unanimously approved the bill.[14]
Boggs was the first woman to preside over a national political convention, specifically the 1976Democratic National Convention.[14] In the1980 Presidential election Boggs was on the Vice-Presidential shortlist for SenatorTed Kennedy during his primary challenge of PresidentCarter.[15]
She always remained ananti-abortion advocate. She believed that herpro-life views was one of the main reasons why she wasn't chosen as running mate forWalter Mondale for the1984 U.S. presidential election, despite being briefly considered.[16]
In 1991, she was awarded theLaetare Medal by theUniversity of Notre Dame, the oldest and most prestigious award forAmerican Catholics.[17]
In 1994, Boggs was inducted into theLouisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame inWinnfield, one year after her husband had been among the original thirteen inductees.
In 1997, PresidentBill Clinton appointed her officialU.S. ambassador to the Holy See, a position she held until 2001.
In 2005, Boggs's home onBourbon Street in New Orleans' French Quarter sustained moderate wind damage fromHurricane Katrina.[citation needed] In 2006, she was awarded the Congressional Distinguished Service Award for her time in the House of Representatives.
Boggs was a member ofSigma Gamma Rho, one of the four traditionally African-American sororities in the United States.[18]
The Boggs Center for Energy and Biotechnology Building at Tulane is named in her honor.[19]
Boggs and her daughter,Cokie Roberts, received the Foremother Award from theNational Center for Health Research in 2013.[20]
Boggs died of natural causes at her home inChevy Chase, Maryland on July 27, 2013, at age 97.[21] 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, Louisiana.[22]
After her death,GovernorBobby Jindal ordered all U.S. and state flags in Louisiana to fly at half staff until August 2, 2013 in Mrs. Boggs's memory.[23]
In 2019,Time created 89 new covers to celebrate women of the year starting from 1920; it chose Boggs for 1974.[24]
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| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromLouisiana's 2nd congressional district 1973–1991 | Succeeded by |
| 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 | Permanent Chairperson of the Democratic National Convention 1976 | Succeeded by |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to the Holy See 1997–2001 | Succeeded by |
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