Marion West Higgins (January 9, 1915 – December 24, 1991) was an AmericanRepublican Party politician who served as the first femaleSpeaker of theNew Jersey General Assembly. She was only the third woman (afterMinnie D. Craig ofNorth Dakota andConsuelo N. Bailey ofVermont) to serve as speaker of astate House of Representatives in the United States.[1] She also served as ActingGovernor of New Jersey in early 1965.
Higgins was born in 1915 inNew Rochelle, New York to Marion (Speaks) and Dr.James E. West. Her father was the firstChief Scout Executive of theBoy Scouts of America, serving from 1911 to 1943.[2] She attendedNew Rochelle High School before enteringMount Holyoke College, where she graduated with a degree in political science in 1936. In 1941 she married William F. Higgins, and in 1949 they moved toHillsdale, New Jersey to open a real estate and insurance business.[3]
Higgins became involved inBergen County Republican politics, and in 1959 she was elected to theNew Jersey General Assembly, where she served three terms. In 1964 she was selected as majority leader, and in 1965 she was selected as Speaker. When GovernorRichard J. Hughes was out of the state in January 1965, Higgins became Acting Governor. Normally,New Jersey Senate PresidentCharles W. Sandman, Jr. would have taken the post, as he stood first in the line of succession to the governorship. However, Sandman absented himself from the state so that Higgins would be accorded the honor of serving as the first woman to lead the state.[3]
Higgins ran for State Senate in 1965 on the Republican Party's Bergen County slate, but all four Republican candidates went down to defeat in the general election, as Democrats took control of both houses of the Legislature.[4]
After her tenure in the Assembly, Higgins continued to operate the Hillsdale real estate business with her husband. In 1973 she followed in her father's footsteps by becoming a member of the Bergen County Council of the Boy Scouts of America.[2] She was also the first woman to serve on the board ofOrange and Rockland Utilities, Inc.[5]
In 1991, at the age of 76, Higgins died atPascack Valley Hospital inWestwood, New Jersey after suffering injuries in a car accident in Hillsdale.[5] She is buried at Maryrest Cemetery inMahwah.[6]
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| Preceded by | Speaker of theNew Jersey General Assembly 1965 | Succeeded by |
