BACKMargaret Chase Smith
Margaret
Chase Smith was the first woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives
and the U.S. Senate. In 1964 she became the first woman to be placed in
nomination for the presidency of the United States at a major party convention. She was born in
Skowhegan, Maine on December 14, 1897. Her father was a barber. She went to
Skowhegan High School and graduated in 1916. She worked in a small store after
school. She was a school teacher for two years. Then she worked as a telephone
operator and then as a manager for a telephone company. She was manager for a
weekly newspaper, office manager of a woolen mill and a treasurer of a garbage
company.
In 1930 she married Clyde D. Smith, an important Maine politician. Clyde was elected to the House of Representatives from Maine. Margaret worked as his secretary. After Clyde died in 1940, Margaret was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She was the Senator from Maine from 1950-1972. Senator Smith received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bush in 1989. Margaret Chase Smith died in her home in Skowhegan on May 29, 1995.
Image courtesy of the Margaret Chase Smith Library
Other sites about Margaret Chase Smith:
http://www.mcslibrary.org/
http://skowhegan.maineusa.com/mcs.html
http://www.greatwomen.org/smithm.htm
2000, by David, fourth grade