Norton, Mary Teresa, 1875-1959

Mary Teresa Norton (née Hopkins, March 7, 1875 – August 2, 1959) was an American Democratic Party politician who represented Jersey City and Bayonne in the United States House of Representatives from 1925 to 1951.

Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, she attended parochial schools and Jersey City High School before graduating from Packard Business College, New York City in 1896. She worked as a secretary and stenographer until she married Robert Francis Norton in April 1909. As part of the healing process after her one-week-old son, Robert Jr., died in 1910, Norton began working at the Queen’s Daughters Day Nursery and, within three years, became its secretary. By 1916 she was elected nursery president. In her capacity as a fundraiser for the nursery, Norton made contacts throughout the New Jersey political world. Her husband, who died in 1934, supported her professional and political careers to the end.

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