Gracie Pfost
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromIdaho's1st district
In office January 3, 1953 – January 3, 1963
Preceded by	John Wood
Succeeded by	Compton White Jr.
Personal details
Born	Gracie Bowers (1906-03-12)March 12, 1906 Harrison, Arkansas, U.S.
Died	August 11, 1965(1965-08-11) (aged 59) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Resting place	Meridian Cemetery inMeridian, Idaho
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Jack Pfost (1923–1961)
Education	Link's Business College

Gracie Bowers Pfost (March 12, 1906 – August 11, 1965) was the first woman to representIdaho in theUnited States Congress, serving five terms as aDemocrat in theHouse of Representatives. Pfost represented the state's1st district from 1953 to 1963.^[1][2]

Born in anOzark Mountain log cabin inHarrison,Arkansas, Pfost was five when her parents moved to a farm nearBoise, Idaho, in 1911. One of five siblings, she quitMeridian High School at 16 in 1922 and worked as a milk analyst at a dairy inNampa. The next year she married her supervisor, Jack Pfost, who was more than twice her age. She graduated from Link's Business College^[3] in Boise in 1929.

Pfost entered politics inCanyon County; she held several positions in county government between 1929 and 1951, including deputy county clerk, auditor,recorder of deeds, and county treasurer. She also served as an Idaho delegate to allDemocratic National Conventions between 1944 and 1960. The Pfosts ran a real estate business in the 1940s and into the 1950s.^{[citation needed]}

In1950, Pfost ran for Congress and won the Democratic nomination over Harry Wall ofLewiston, but narrowly lost toRepublicanJohn Travers Wood, a physician fromCoeur d'Alene. In1952, she defeated former eight-term CongressmanCompton White, Sr. ofClark Fork in the Democratic primary^[4] and unseated Wood in another close general election. Pfost was reelected in1954,1956,1958, and1960. The "Hell's Belle" of Congress, she was a moderately liberal Democrat, who earned her nickname in her first year, fighting for a large federal dam on theSnake River inHells Canyon. After years of debate,^[5] the single high dam was ultimately defeated and built as a three-dam complex (Brownlee,Oxbow,Hells Canyon) by the local private utility,Idaho Power.^[2][6][7]

Source:^[8]

Though her House seat was considered secure, the death ofHenry Dworshak in July1962 prompted Pfost to run for his seat in theU.S. Senate.^[9] She was the Democratic nominee in the special election,^[10] but was narrowly defeated (51% to 49%) by the appointed Republican incumbent, former GovernorLen Jordan Despite DemocratFrank Church winning re-election to the state's other senate seat[1].^[11] The election took place shortly after theCuban Missile Crisis of late October; Jordan was re-elected in 1966 and retired at the end of that term, in early 1973.

Pfost's congressional seat was won by six points by DemocratCompton White, Jr. ofClark Fork, the 41-year-old namesake son of the late eight-term congressman. Idaho'sother House seat also went to young Democrat, as 33-year-oldRalph Harding ofBlackfoot won a second term. Idaho's other U.S. Senate seat (class 3) was also on the ballot, with 38-year-old DemocratFrank Church of Boise re-elected to the second of four terms.

To date, Dworshak's seat (class 2), earlier held byWilliam Borah for over three decades, has been continuously held by Republicans for over75 years (since October 1949), and Idaho has yet to elect a woman to the U.S. Senate.

Source:^[8]

After leaving the House in 1963, Pfost remained in Washington and worked in theFederal Housing Administration as a special assistant on housing for theelderly. She was hospitalized in Washington withpneumonia in October^[12] and a few months later atJohns Hopkins Hospital inBaltimore, Maryland.^[13] Later diagnosed withHodgkin's disease, Pfost was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital several times in 1965,^[14] and died there on August 11 at age 59.^[1][15]

Pfost's husband Jack died of a heart attack four years earlier, at her Washington office during her last term in Congress.^[16] They did not have children and are buried at Meridian Cemetery inMeridian, Idaho.^[17]

• Women in the United States House of Representatives

 This article incorporatespublic domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

• United States Congress."Gracie Pfost (id: P000287)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• U.S. House of Representatives History – Gracie Bowers Pfost (1906–1965)
• University of Idaho Library – Gracie (Bowers) Pfost (1906–1965), papers: 1950–1962
• Gracie Pfost atFind a Grave

• 1906 births
• 1965 deaths
• Methodists from Idaho
• County officials in Idaho
• Deaths from cancer in Maryland
• Deaths from Hodgkin lymphoma
• Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Idaho
• Female members of the United States House of Representatives
• People from Harrison, Arkansas
• Politicians from Meridian, Idaho
• Politicians from Nampa, Idaho
• Women in Idaho politics
• Businesspeople from Idaho
• 20th-century American women politicians
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