Gasque, Elizabeth Hawley, 1886-1989

Elizabeth Gasque Van Exem (February 26, 1886 – November 2, 1989), named Elizabeth Hawley Gasque during her tenure in Congress, was an American author, lecturer, farmer, and politician. She was the first woman elected to Congress from South Carolina, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from September 1938 to January 1939.

Born Elizabeth Mills Hawley near Blythewood, South Carolina was a member of the southern aristocracy and spent her childhood on the expansive “Rice Creek” plantation, which covered 4,000 acres. She attended the South Carolina Coeducational Institute in Edgefield, South Carolina, and graduated with a degree in expression (drama) from Greenville Female College (now Furman University) in 1907, the year she married Allard H. Gasque, a teacher and school administrator. In 1923 Allard Gasque won election to the first of eight terms as a U.S. Representative from South Carolina, eventually becoming the chairman of the Committee on Pensions and a champion of war veterans and their families. It was during her husband’s congressional service that Bessie Gasque fell in love with Washington, plunging into the social scene. She became one of the regular hosts of an annual ball to raise funds to fight polio, held on President Franklin Roosevelt’s birthday. Washington became her “natural home."

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