Marilyn Lloyd | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromTennessee's3rd district | |
| In office January 3, 1975 – January 3, 1995 | |
| Preceded by | LaMar Baker |
| Succeeded by | Zach Wamp |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Rachel Marilyn Laird (1929-01-03)January 3, 1929 Fort Smith, Arkansas, U.S. |
| Died | September 19, 2018(2018-09-19) (aged 89) Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouses |
|
| Children | 4 |
| Education | University of Alabama Shorter University |
Rachel Marilyn Lloyd (néeLaird; January 3, 1929 – September 19, 2018) was an Americanpolitician and businesswoman who served ten terms in theUnited States House of Representatives from 1975 until 1995.
Laird was born inFort Smith, Arkansas in 1929, the daughter of aChurch of Christ pastor. She graduated from Western Kentucky College High School, a high school that associated with what is nowWestern Kentucky University, inBowling Green, Kentucky, in 1945. She attendedShorter College inRome, Georgia. She owned radio stationWTTI inDalton, Georgia, and Executive Aviation inWinchester, Tennessee.[1]
Her first husband was Dr. Robert Earl Davison, a dentist in Trion, Georgia. After Davison's death in 1960, she married Chattanooga TV news anchor Mort Lloyd in 1963. He died in an airplane crash in 1974. In 1978, she married engineer Joseph P. Bouquard. In 1983, the couple divorced, and she resumed using the name Marilyn Lloyd. In 1991, she married Robert Fowler, a physician, who also predeceased her. Lloyd had three daughters from her marriage to Davison, and a son from her marriage to Lloyd.[2]
Mort Lloyd was a populartelevision anchor atWDEF-TV in Chattanooga, who had entered the 1974Democraticprimary forTennessee's 3rd congressional district, to oppose two-term incumbentRepublican CongressmanLaMar Baker. Lloyd had won the primary in the Chattanooga-based district on August 1, but he was killed in an airplane crash on August 20 while flying to visit his parents,[3] and the Democratic Party selected his widow to replace him on the ballot. She went on to defeat Baker in the General Election in November. That election saw many Republicans, in competitive and marginal districts, defeated, in large part because of theWatergate scandal.[2] Lloyd was a moderate-to-conservative Democrat, receiving a score of 53% from theAmerican Conservative Union.
She became the first woman ever elected toCongress from Tennessee for a full term.Willa Eslick,Louise Reece, andIrene Baker were all elected in special elections to succeed their husbands as caretakers and did not run for a full term in the next election. Lloyd was considered a conservative Democrat by national standards, but a moderate by Tennessee standards. She often broke with the Democratic Party's national leadership, her views reflecting those of her conservative-minded district.[4]
Lloyd served on theHouse Science Committee for her entire congressional career. That committee had jurisdiction over legislation related tonuclear weapons and research facilities atOak Ridge in her district. By the time of her retirement from Congress, she was the second-ranking Democrat on the committee. She was a strong advocate for theClinch River Breeder Reactor project inOak Ridge. She also served on theCommittee on Public Works (1975–87), on theArmed Services Committee (1983–95), and on theHouse Select Committee on Aging for much of her congressional career.[5]
When women members of the House formed a Women's Caucus in 1977, Lloyd was one of three congresswomen who declined membership, presumably because she feared alienating her constituents. She later joined the caucus but resigned in 1980 over political disagreements.[6] Lloyd cosponsored legislation related towomen's health, notably theMammography Quality Standards Act, which was enacted in 1992.[7][8][9] After she was diagnosed withbreast cancer in 1991 and was denied asilicone breast implant because theU.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had removed them from the market, Lloyd became an advocate for breast cancer treatment and women's health. She advocated for the availability ofbreast implants for reconstructive surgery.[10] Her fight with cancer led her to reverse her longstanding opposition to abortion; she announced on the floor of the House that having to fight to make decisions about her treatment "that should have been mine alone" led to her change of heart on the issue.[11]
In 1992, her Republican opponent was real estate brokerZach Wamp. In one of the closest contests of her career, she only defeated Wamp by 2,900 votes (1%), and only then because of the withdrawal of underground environmental candidate Peter Melcher. Lloyd lost badly inHamilton County, home to Chattanooga, and retained her seat only due to a strong showing in the Oak Ridge area. Despite Tennessee'sSenatorAl Gore being elected Vice President asBill Clinton's running mate, the Clinton–Gore Democratic ticket won the 3rd District by only 39 votes out of 225,000 cast, one of their worst performances in the state. The closeness of the race is believed to have influenced her decision not to stand for an 11th term in 1994. She endorsed Wamp's bid for Congress that year, which may have contributed to his narrow victory.[5] That election was one of only two times since Lloyd left office that the Democrats have cleared the 40 percent mark in the district.
Subsequent to her retirement from Congress, Lloyd maintained a fairly low profile other than her advocacy for victims ofdomestic violence. The Marilyn Lloyd Environmental and Life Sciences Research Complex atOak Ridge National Laboratory was named in her honor in 1999.[12] HerCongressional papers are archived in the library of theUniversity of Tennessee at Chattanooga.[1]
Lloyd died on September 19, 2018, aged 89, at her home inChattanooga, Tennessee. No cause of death was provided although in her obituary she was described as a "breast cancer survivor".[13]
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromTennessee's 3rd congressional district 1975–1995 | Succeeded by |
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| National | |
| People | |
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