Granahan, Kathryn Elizabeth, 1894-1979

Kathryn Elizabeth Granahan (December 7, 1894 – July 10, 1979) was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the first woman to be elected to the United States Congress from Philadelphia. After leaving the House, she served as the 32nd Treasurer of the United States.

Born Kathryn Elizabeth O'Hay in Easton, Pennsylvania, she graduated from Easton High School and Mount St. Joseph Collegiate Institute (later Chestnut Hill College) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She became the supervisor of public assistance in the state auditor general’s department and liaison officer between that department and the department of public assistance, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, from 1940 to 1943. In that job, O’Hay met William Granahan, a World War I veteran, member of the state Democratic committee, Democratic ward leader in Philadelphia, and chief disbursing officer for the Pennsylvania treasury. In 1943 the couple married. A year later, William Granahan won election as a Democrat to a U.S. congressional district encompassing Philadelphia’s west end. Though he lost his seat in the national Republican sweep of 1946, William Granahan recaptured the seat two years later and retained it until his unexpected death in May 1956.

...