Jessica ("Judy") Weis, Republican Party activist and member of the U.S. House of Representatives, was born July 8, 1901, in Chicago, Ill., the daughter of Jessie (Martin) and Charles H. McCullough, Jr. After attending elementary school in Buffalo, N.Y., she went to Miss Wright's School in Bryn Mawr, Pa., and Madame Rieffel's School in New York City. In 1921 she married Charles W. Weis, Jr., and moved to Rochester, N.Y., where she raised three children, joined the Junior League and various other charitable organizations, started the Chatterbox Club (amateur theatricals), and became increasingly active in the Republican Party. JW always encouraged women to be active in politics, as party workers and as candidates for public office. She supported the Equal Rights Amendment and often participated in the annual Rochester celebration honoring Susan B. Anthony. Her busy political life is reflected in the following chronology.
1920s-early 1930s Neighborhood canvassing, ringing doorbells, organizing women1935Appointed vice-chair of the Republican Citizens Finance Committee1936Organized motorcades to campaign for Alfred M. Landon19371944Member of Advisory Committee of National Federation of Women's Republican Clubs19371952Vice-chair of Monroe County Republican Committee1938Monroe County delegate to Republican Educational League Council of N.Y.1940Member of Committee of 48, which notified Wendell Willkie of his nominationDelegate-at-large from N.Y. to Republican National Convention19401942President of National Federation of Women's Republican Clubs, addressed meetings in 30 statesca. 1940Became a member of state Republican Executive Committee19431958Republican National Committeewoman from N.Y.1944Delegate, and vice-chair of N.Y. delegation, to Republican National Convention1948Associate manager of the Thomas Dewey/
Earl Warren campaignDelegate, and vice-chair of N.Y. delegation, to Republican National Convention; seconded Dewey's nomination1952Member of Republican National Committee's Executive CommitteeDelegate, and vice-chair of N.Y. delegation, to the Republican National Convention; member of caucus that selected vice-presidential candidate19531958Appointed by President Eisenhower to Advisory Committee of Federal Civil Defense Administration1954Named a U.S. delegate to Tenth Assembly of Inter-American Commission of Women (unable to attend)1955Appointed to Committee on Arrangements and chair of Sub-committee on [1956] Convention Program Planning1956Subject of Arlene Francis NBC Home Show television seriesDelegate, and vice-chair of N.Y. delegation, to Republican National Convention1958Husband, Charles W. Weis, Jr., dies19581962Elected to U.S. House of Representatives1960Assigned to House Committee on Science and Astronautics1962Ill, does not run for third term1963 Dies May 1 in Rochester, N.Y.
More biographical information is available in this collection. See also Who Was Who in America (1961-1968), and A Minority of Members: Women in the U.S. Congress, by Hope Chamberlin (New York: Praeger, 1973).
From the guide to the Papers, 1922-1963, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)