Smith, Margaret Chase, 1897-1995

<p>Margaret Madeline Chase Smith (December 14, 1897 – May 29, 1995) was an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, she served as a U.S Representative (1940–49) and a U.S. Senator (1949–73) from Maine. She was the first woman to serve in both houses of the United States Congress, and the first woman to represent Maine in either. A moderate Republican, she was among the first to criticize the tactics of McCarthyism in her 1950 speech, "Declaration of Conscience".</p>

<p>Smith was a candidate for the Republican nomination in the 1964 presidential election; she was the first woman to be placed in nomination for the presidency at a major party's convention. Upon leaving office, she was the longest-serving female Senator in history, a distinction that was not surpassed until January 5, 2011, when Senator Barbara Mikulski was sworn in for a fifth term. To date, Smith is ranked as the longest-serving Republican woman in the Senate.</p>

SMITH, MARGARET CHASE, (wife of Clyde Harold Smith), a Senator and a Representative from Maine; born Margaret Madeline Chase, December 14, 1897, in Skowhegan, Somerset County, Maine; attended the public schools; taught school in Skowhegan, Maine 1916-1917; business executive for country weekly newspaper and a woolen company 1919-1930; secretary to husband while he was in Congress 1937-1940; lieutenant colonel, Air Force Reserve 1950-1957; elected as a Republican to the Seventy-sixth Congress, by special election, June 3, 1940, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of her husband, Clyde H. Smith; reelected to the four succeeding Congresses and served from June 3, 1940, to January 3, 1949; was not a candidate for reelection but was elected in 1948 to the United States Senate; reelected in 1954, 1960 and 1966, and served from January 3, 1949, until January 3, 1973; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1972; first woman to serve in both houses of Congress; chairwoman, Special Committee on Rates of Compensation (Eighty-third Congress), Republican Conference (Ninetieth through Ninety-second Congresses); first woman to be placed in nomination for the presidency at a major party convention 1964; visiting professor for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation 1973-1976; awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on July 6, 1989; was a resident of Skowhegan, Maine, until her death on May 29, 1995; remains were cremated, and ashes placed in the residential wing of the Margaret Chase Smith Library, Skowhegan, Maine.

<p>Margaret Chase Smith was born in Skowhegan, Maine, on December 14, 1897. Her entry into politics came through the career of Clyde Smith, the man she married in 1930. Clyde was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1936. Margaret served as his secretary. When Clyde died in 1940, she succeeded her husband. After four terms in the House, she won election to the United States Senate in 1948. In so doing, she became the first woman elected to both houses of Congress.</p>

<p>Senator Smith came to national attention on June 1, 1950, when she became the first member of the Senate to denounce the tactics used by colleague Joseph McCarthy in his anti-communist crusade. Following her "Declaration of Conscience" speech, some pundits speculated that she might be the vice-presidential candidate on the 1952 Republican ticket. The opportunity, however, never materialized. In 1964, Senator Smith pursued her own political ambitions, running in several Republican presidential primaries. She took her candidacy all the way to the Republican National Convention in San Francisco, where she became the first woman to have her name placed in nomination for the presidency by either of the two major parties. In the final balloting, Smith refused to withdraw and so came in second to the Republican nominee, Senator Barry Goldwater.</p>

<p>After four terms in both the House and Senate, and over thirty-two years in Congress all together, Senator Smith lost re-election in 1972. She retired to her home in Skowhegan and began planning for the establishment of a library. The Margaret Chase Smith Library opened in 1982 and for the next dozen years, she presided over the facility, meeting with admirers, former constituents, politicians, policymakers, researchers, and school children. Margaret Chase Smith died at her home on Memorial Day, May 29, 1995.</p>