Lindy Boggs

Lindy Boggs
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana's 2nd district
In office March 20, 1973 – January 3, 1991
Preceded by	Hale Boggs
Succeeded by	William J. Jefferson
5th United States Ambassador to the Holy See
In office 1997–2001
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Raymond Flynn
Succeeded by	Jim Nicholson
Personal details
Born	Marie Corinne Morrison Claiborne (1916-03-13) March 13, 1916 Brunswick Plantation, Louisiana, USA
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Hale Boggs
Alma mater	Tulane University

Marie Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs, usually known as Lindy Boggs (born March 13, 1916), is a United States political figure who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and later as United States Ambassador to the Holy See. She was the first woman elected to Congress from Louisiana. She was also a permanent chairwoman of the 1976 Democratic National Convention, which made her the first female to preside over a major party convention.

She is the widow of former House Majority Leader Hale Boggs, and the mother of three children: Cokie Roberts (a television news commentator), Thomas Hale Boggs, Jr., (a prominent lobbyist), and the late Barbara Boggs Sigmund, a mayor of Princeton, New Jersey, and a candidate in the 1982 New Jersey Democratic senatorial primary election. No female representative from Louisiana has served in the House since Boggs left office.

Life

Boggs was born in Brunswick Plantation, near New Roads in Pointe Coupee Parish. She attended Newcomb College at Tulane University in New Orleans. She was a second cousin of the late New Orleans Mayor and Ambassador to the Organization of American States, DeLesseps Story "Chep" Morrison, Sr., who for a time was also her husband's law partner.

In 1972, Representative and Majority Leader Hale Boggs' plane disappeared over Alaska. The first bill that the House passed in 1973, House Resolution 1, officially recognized Hale Boggs' death and created the need for a special election. Lindy Boggs ran as a Democrat for her husband's vacated seat and became Representative of the New Orleans-based 2nd District in 1973.

She was elected to a full term in 1974 with 82 percent of the vote and was reelected seven times thereafter, leaving office in January 1991. In 1980, she faced the Republican Rob Couhig, an attorney-businessman who raised some $200,000 for the race, a large amount at that time for a challenger in a difficult district. Lindy Boggs still prevailed, 45,091 votes (63.8 percent) to Couhig's 25,512 (36.2 percent). Otherwise, Boggs polled more than 80 percent in her contested races. In her four final campaigns, she ran without opposition even though the district had been redrawn with an African American majority following the 1980 United States Census. In 1994, Boggs was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield, one year after her late husband had been among the original thirteen inductees.

In 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed her official U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, a position she held until 2001.

In 2005, Boggs's home on Bourbon Street in New Orleans' French Quarter suffered moderate wind damage from Hurricane Katrina. In 2006, she was awarded the Congressional Distinguished Service Award for her time in the House of Representatives.

Boggs is a member of Sigma Gamma Rho, one of the four traditionally African-American sororities in the United States.^{[citation needed]}

Tulane's Boggs Center for Energy and Biotechnology building is named in honor of her.

Further reading

• Boggs, Lindy, with Katherine Hatch. Washington Through a Purple Veil: Memoirs of a Southern Woman. New York: Harcourt Brace and Co., 1994
• Ferrell, Thomas H., and Judith Haydel. “Hale and Lindy Boggs: Louisiana’s National Democrats.” Louisiana History 35 (Fall 1994): 389–402.

Tyler, Pamela. "Silk Stockings & Ballot Boxes: Women & Politics in New Orleans, 1920 - 1965". University of Georgia Press, 1996.

• Carrick, Bess. "Lindy Boggs: Steel and Velvet". Documentary film chronicles Mrs. Boggs' career in politics and features Cokie & Steve Roberts, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Rep. John Lewis, former House Speaker Tom Foley, and scholars, Dr. Patrick Maney, & Dr. Pamela Tyler. Produced by Bess Carrick with Louisiana Public Broadcasting, 2006. Airdate 2006–present, nationwide via PBS-Plus.

External links

• Lindy Boggs at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame
• Oral History Interview with Lindy Boggs from Oral Histories of the American South

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Hale Boggs	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana's 2nd congressional district 1973–1991	Succeeded by William J. Jefferson
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Raymond Flynn	U. S. Ambassador to the Holy See 1997–2001	Succeeded by James Nicholson
Party political offices
Preceded by Larry O'Brien	Permanent Chairwoman of the Democratic National Convention 1976	Succeeded by Tip O'Neill