Bedell, Catherine May, 1914-2004

<p>Catherine Dean May (May 18, 1914 – May 28, 2004) was a U.S. Representative from Washington. She was the first woman elected to Congress in the state of Washington.</p>

<p>May was born as Catherine Dean Barnes in Yakima, Washington and graduated from Yakima Valley Junior College, in 1934. She earned her B.S. from the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington in 1936 and her teaching certificate in 1937. She attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California in 1939.</p>

<p>She taught English at Chehalis High School from 1937 to 1940 and was women's editor and a news broadcaster in Tacoma, Washington in 1941 and 1942. She headed the radio department for a Seattle advertising agency from 1942 to 1943, and a Seattle insurance company from 1943 to 1944. She then became a writer and assistant commentator for the National Broadcasting Company in New York City from 1944 to 1946 before returning to the Northwest to become women's editor at station KIT in Yakima from 1948 to 1957. She worked as an office manager and medical secretary at the Yakima Medical Center in 1957 and 1958 and served as president of Bedell Associates.</p>

<p>The first woman to represent Washington state in the U.S. House of Representatives, Catherine Dean May, entered public service after her father insisted that she not repeat his example of avoiding the political arena. Congresswoman May established herself as a moderate. She advocated for the needs of her agrarian district, congressional ethics, and women’s rights, supporting such measures as the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and the inclusion of the sex discrimination clause in the 1964 Civil Rights Act.</p>

<p>Catherine Dean Barnes was born on May 18, 1914, in Yakima, Washington, to Charles H. Barnes, a department store owner and real estate broker, and Pauline Van Loon Barnes. She attended Yakima Valley Junior College and, in 1936, graduated from the University of Washington with a BA in English and speech. Catherine Barnes taught high school English in Chehalis, Washington. In 1940 she pursued a radio broadcasting career in Tacoma and Seattle. On January 18, 1943, she married James O. May. The following year, while waiting for her husband to be discharged from the U.S. Army, Catherine May worked as a writer and assistant commentator for the National Broadcasting Company in New York City. The couple returned to Yakima in 1946, where James May established a real estate and insurance business while she worked as a women’s editor for a local radio station. The Mays raised a son and daughter: Jamie and Melinda. The couple became active in politics after Charles Barnes, whose department store went bankrupt in the Great Depression, revealed that his great regret in life was not participating in local government to address public problems. The Mays joined the Young Republicans and became active precinct workers. In 1952, at James’s urging, Catherine May ran for a seat as Yakima’s representative in the Washington legislature. Elected as a Republican, she served for six years.</p>

<p>When eight-term U.S. Representative Otis Halbert Holmes declined to seek re-election for his U.S. House seat in 1958, May entered the race against heavily favored Democrat Frank Le Roux (who had nearly unseated Holmes in 1956). The sprawling Washington state district was bordered by Idaho to the east, Oregon to the south, and the Cascade Mountain range to the west and extended into the Columbia River basin in the north. Running on a lean budget, May resorted to distributing handbills and going door-to-door to meet voters, while Le Roux bought billboards to reach the district’s thinly spread electorate. May turned Le Roux’s advertising against him, challenging him to a debate (which he declined) and delivering campaign speeches in which she declared: “Come out from behind those billboards.” May defeated Le Roux by a margin of 10,000 votes, tallying 54 percent of the total. That was the closest race Congresswoman May encountered in six successful campaigns, as she steadily increased her margins of victory: 59 percent in 1960, 65 percent in 1964, and 67 percent in 1968. The 1964 election was especially noteworthy since the strong turnout against Republican presidential candidate Senator Barry Morris Goldwater of Arizona cost four incumbent Washington Republicans their House seats.</p>