Andrews, Elizabeth Bullock, 1911-2002

<p>Elizabeth Andrews was schooled in elective politics as the wife of a longtime and powerful Member of Congress. When her husband, George William Andrews, died suddenly in late 1971, friends convinced her to seek election for the remainder of his term to further his legislative agenda. “All I want is to do the best I can for the rest of the term,” Elizabeth Andrews told reporters on New Year’s Day 1972. “I simply want to complete George’s plans as best I can."</p>

<p>Leslie Elizabeth Bullock was born in Geneva, Alabama, on February 12, 1911. Her father, Charles Gillespie Bullock, was a businessman. Elizabeth Bullock attended school in her hometown of Geneva. In 1932 she graduated from Montevallo College, majoring in home economics. Bullock subsequently taught high school home economics in Livingston, Alabama. During the Depression, she relocated to a school in Union Springs for better pay. There she met her future husband, George Andrews, whom she married in 1936. They raised two children: Jane and George Jr.</p>

<p>During the 1930s, George Andrews served as district attorney in the Alabama circuit court system. He held the position until 1943, when he served as an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve and was stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory. When longtime Representative Henry Bascom Steagall of Alabama died in November 1943, Andrews announced his candidacy for the vacant seat in the rural, 12-county southeastern Alabama district. Elizabeth Andrews, at home raising the couple’s young daughter, got her first taste of elective politics. With her husband thousands of miles away in the Pacific, she became a lead member of his campaign team, taking to the hustings to make speeches on his behalf. Running as a Democrat, Andrews won the March 1944 special election for a seat in the 78th Congress (1943–1945) while still overseas. He was re-elected to the 14 succeeding Congresses. The couple eventually relocated to Washington, DC, where Elizabeth became active in the Congressional Club, made up of spouses of Members of Congress. Eventually, she served as vice president of the organization in 1971. George Andrews, meanwhile, became a senior and powerful member of the Appropriations Committee, eventually chairing its Legislative Subcommittee. He was a fiscal conservative, a critic of civil rights legislation, a friend of segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace (whose hometown was in Andrews’s district), and a defense hawk. By his final term in office, he was among the top 20 House Members in terms of seniority.</p>

<p>Elizabeth Bullock Andrews (February 12, 1911 – December 2, 2002) was the first woman to represent Alabama in the United States House of Representatives. She was the wife of congressman George William Andrews.</p>

<p>Born Leslie Elizabeth Bullock in Geneva, Alabama to Charles Gillespie Bullock and Janie Aycock, Andrews attended Geneva public schools. She earned a B.S. in home economics from Montevallo College (now the University of Montevallo), Montevallo, Alabama, in 1932. She went on to become a high school teacher at Livingston, Alabama. She later took a teaching job in Union Springs for the better pay during the Depression. This is where she met her husband, George William Andrews. They married on November 25, 1936 and had two children, Jane and George, Jr. The marriage lasted more than 35 years until his death of complications from heart surgery on December 25, 1971.</p>

<p>When her husband first ran for the 78th Congress, she was heavily involved with his campaign. He was reelected to 14 succeeding Congresses and the couple relocated to Washington, DC where Andrews became involved in the Congressional Club and served as vice president in 1971.</p>