Vucanovich, Barbara F. (Barbara Farrell), 1921-2013

<p>Barbara Farrell Vucanovich (June 22, 1921 – June 10, 2013) was an American Republican politician who was the first Latina elected to the United States House of Representatives, in which she served representing Nevada from 1983 to 1997.</p>

<p>Vucanovich was born in Camp Dix, New Jersey. Her father, Thomas Farrell, who hailed from Troy, New York, was of Irish ancestry. Between the world wars he was the chief engineer for the New York State Department of Public Works, and during World War II rejoined the United States Army to become Deputy Commanding General of the Manhattan Project. Vucanovich's mother, Maria Ynez White, was of English and Hispanic ancestry from southern California, with her maternal grandmother having been a Mexican who became a U.S. citizen upon the transfer of California to the United States in 1848.</p>

<p>Vucanovich grew up in the capital city of Albany, New York. She married James Henry Bugden at the age of 18 but became separated when her husband was assigned overseas during the war. She was employed by several New York businesses during the 1940s. In 1949, she moved to Reno, Nevada and obtained a divorce. In 1950 she married Kenneth Dillon, a founding partner in the law firm Vargas, Dillon, and Bartlett. Their children were Patricia, Michael, Kenneth, Thomas, and Susan. Widowed in 1964, she married George Vucanovich in 1965. They met while working on Paul Laxalt's unsuccessful campaign in 1964 for the U.S. Senate.</p>

<p>In 1982 Barbara Vucanovich became the first Nevada woman elected to federal office. At the time, Vucanovich represented one of the biggest districts in the country, covering nearly the entire state. Winning her first elective office at the age of 61, the former business owner and congressional aide won an influential seat on the Appropriations Committee (eventually chairing the Military Construction Subcommittee) and served seven terms in the House of Representatives.</p>

<p>Barbara Farrell was born on June 22, 1921, in Fort Dix, New Jersey, to Thomas and Ynez Farrell. Public service was a part of her life from an early age. Her father was the chief civil engineer for New York under Governors Al Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Her mother had been a volunteer ambulance driver in World War I. Barbara Farrell was raised in Albany, New York, graduating from the Albany Academy for Girls in 1938. She attended the Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart from 1938 to 1939. In 1949, the family moved to Nevada. On March 8, 1950, Barbara Farrell married Ken Dillon and they settled in the Reno area in the northwest part of the state. The couple raised five children: Patty, Mike, Ken, Tom, and Susan, before her husband died in 1964. Barbara Farrell Dillon married George Vucanovich on June 19, 1965. While raising her family, Barbara Vucanovich also owned and operated a speed reading school and a travel agency.</p>

<p>Vucanovich’s first experience in politics came in 1952 when she served as a delegate to the Nevada state GOP convention. Three years later, she won a one-year term as president of the Nevada Federation of Republican Women. She worked for Republican Paul Dominique Laxalt for nearly 20 years while he served as Nevada’s lieutenant governor and governor. When Laxalt won election to the U.S. Senate, Vucanovich worked for him as manager of his district office and as a campaign adviser from 1974 until 1982. It was in that capacity that she learned the nuances of constituent service, a skill that even her opponents admired. One observer noted Vucanovich “is good with people, and she can think on her feet talking to them.” In 1976 and 1980 she served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention.</p>