Capps, Lois, 1938-

<p>In 1998 Lois Capps won a special election to the United States House of Representatives following the death of her husband, Walter Holden Capps, who was only 10 months into his House career. In her nearly two decades on Capitol Hill, Capps was a prominent advocate for health care and environmental protection. Recognized as one of Congress’s nicest and most collegial Members, Capps often crossed party lines to join Republicans—GOP women Members, in particular—to forward her legislative agenda. “Being a woman in Congress is really interesting,” she once observed. “We are in the minority. I’m very proud of my colleagues who are women. We do sort of have a bond and it’s across the aisle, so there is something to be said for our gender.”</p>

<p>Lois Capps was born Lois Ragnhild Grimsrud in Ladysmith, Wisconsin, on January 10, 1938, to Jurgen, a minister, and Solveig Grimsrud. The Grimsruds later moved to Kalispell, Montana, where Lois, the only daughter, graduated from Flathead County High School in 1955. She earned a bachelor of science in nursing from Pacific Lutheran University in 1959, a master’s in religion from Yale University in 1964, and a master’s in education from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1990. She married Walter Capps, a theology professor, in 1960, and the couple raised three children: Lisa, Todd, and Laura.</p>

<p>Capps had not paid much attention to politics growing up in western Montana. “We were good, moderate Republican stock, let’s put it that way,” she recalled. But when she and Walter were living in New Haven, Connecticut, for graduate school, both “were caught up in” the civil rights movement and the promise of the John F. Kennedy administration, she remembered. From 1960 to 1964, Lois Capps worked as a nursing instructor and head nurse at the Yale New Haven Hospital and as a staff nurse in Hamden, Connecticut. When the family moved to California, Capps worked as an elementary school nurse in Santa Barbara County, California, from 1968 to 1970 and again from 1977 to 1996. She also taught part-time at the Santa Barbara City College from 1983 to 1995.</p>

<p>Lois Ragnhild Grimsrud Capps (born January 10, 1938) is an American politician who served as the U.S. Representative for California's 24th congressional district from 1998 to 2017. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, numbered as the 22nd District from 1998 to 2003 and the 23rd from 2003 to 2013, includes all of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties and a portion of Ventura County.</p>

<p>Capps served on the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce, where she was a member of the Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee and the Subcommittee on Health. She was a member of the New Democrat Coalition.</p>

<p>Capps was born Lois Ragnhild Grimsrud in Ladysmith, Wisconsin, the daughter of Solveig Magdalene (née Gullixson) and Rev. Jurgen Milton Grimsrud, a Lutheran minister. Both of her parents' families came from Norway. She has lived in Santa Barbara since 1964. She was educated at Pacific Lutheran University with a bachelor's degree in nursing. She earned a master's degree in religion at Yale Divinity School in 1964 and a master's degree in education at the University of California, Santa Barbara.</p>