Fowler, Tillie K. (Tillie Kidd), 1942-2005

Tillie Kidd Fowler (December 23, 1942 – March 2, 2005) was an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, she served in the United States House of Representatives from Florida's 4th congressional district from 1993 to 2001.

Born in Milledgeville, Georgia, she graduated from Salem Academy in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1960 before earning her undergraduate degree from Emory University, where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, in 1964. She earned a law degree from the Emory University School of Law three years later. No Atlanta-area law firm would hire a woman at the time, but U.S. Representative Robert G. Stephens Jr. of Georgia hired her as a legislative assistant for three years. She then worked as general counsel in the White House Office of Consumer Affairs until 1971. In 1968 she married L. Buck Fowler, moving with him to Jacksonville, Florida in 1971. After more than a decade as a mother and housewife, Tillie Fowler re-entered politics. She was elected to the Jacksonville city council and served from 1985 to 1992 as its first female and, later, as its first Republican president in 1989 to 1990. She also served as chair of the Duval County tourism development council from 1989 to 1990 and chair of the Florida Endowment for the Humanities from 1989 to 1991. In 1992, when Democrat Charles E. Bennett, a 22-term Representative, announced his retirement from the House, Fowler entered the race for the northeast Florida seat. With a well-financed campaign that focused on congressional reform and term limits, Fowler won with 56 percent of the vote. She ran unopposed in her succeeding three elections.

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