Bosone, Reva Beck, 1895-1983

<p>A former Salt Lake City municipal judge and Utah legislator (the state’s first woman to serve in both capacities), Congresswoman Reva Beck Bosone blended a jurist’s authority and impartiality with a reformer’s commitment to improving people’s lives. “Do right and fear not,” Judge Bosone once advised a group of college graduates. As a two-term Representative who specialized in land reclamation, water projects, and the reform of the Indian Affairs Bureau, she legislated according to that motto.</p>

<p>The granddaughter of Danish immigrants and Mormon pioneers, Reva Zilpha Beck was born in American Fork, in the Utah Territory, on April 2, 1895, to Christian M. Beck and Zilpha Ann Chipman Beck, hotel proprietors. Raised in a comfortable household that encouraged learning, Reva Beck attended public schools and eventually graduated from Westminster Junior College in 1917. Two years later, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California at Berkeley. Reva Beck married the son of a prominent Utah politician, and they later divorced. From 1920 until 1927, Beck taught high school English, speech, and drama in several Utah schools. When she enrolled at the University of Utah, College of Law, in Salt Lake City, she met Joseph P. Bosone. For a brief stint, she taught English at the university. Reva Beck married Joseph Bosone in 1929 and, a year later, shortly before the birth of their only child, a daughter named Zilpha, Reva Beck Bosone graduated with her LLB. The Bosones relocated to Helper, a coalmining community in central Utah, where they opened a law practice together. The couple eventually divorced.</p>

<p>Bosone remembered that the origins of her interest in political office derived from her mother’s admonition: “If you want to do good, you go where the laws are made because a country is no better than its laws.” In 1932 she became the first woman to serve in the state legislature when she was elected as a Democrat to the Utah house of representatives from a rural district. She won re-election in 1934, this time from Salt Lake City, where she and her husband had moved their law practice. Bosone rose quickly to the majority party floor leader’s post and chair of the sifting committee, which controlled the flow of bills to the floor. She secured passage of a women’s and children’s wage and hour law, a child labor amendment to the Utah constitution, and an unemployment insurance law. In 1936 she left the legislature and won election as the first woman to hold a Salt Lake City judgeship. Initially, she held a post in the traffic court and earned a reputation as a scrupulous jurist, leveling fines sometimes twice those of other judges and instituting a thriving traffic school and other programs to treat alcoholism. “Repeaters,” Bosone told the Associated Press, “go to jail.” After a year, she took over the Salt Lake City police court. The city’s traffic accident rates plummeted, and Bosone became a public favorite and a darling of the press for her tough approach. She won reelection in 1940 and 1944 and served in that capacity until her election to Congress. A talented public speaker, she also hosted a local radio program, “Her Honor—the Judge.” In 1945 Bosone was an official observer at the United Nations’ founding conference at San Francisco. She also served as the first director of the Utah state board for education on alcoholism.</p>

<p>Reva Zilpha Beck Bosone (April 2, 1895 – July 21, 1983) was an American attorney and politician. She was a U.S. Representative from Utah. She was the first woman elected to Congress from Utah.</p>

<p>Born in American Fork in the Utah Territory, the daughter of a Danish immigrant father, Bosone attended public schools and graduated from high school in 1915. She graduated from Westminster Junior College in 1917 and from the University of California at Berkeley in 1919. She taught high school 1920–1927. She graduated from the University of Utah College of Law at Salt Lake City in 1930 and was admitted to the bar the same year. Bosone was the 14th woman admitted to the Utah State Bar. She then practiced law in Helper, Utah, from 1931 to 1933 and Salt Lake City from 1933 to 1936. She served as member of the State house of representatives 1933–1935, serving as floor leader in 1935.</p>

<p>Bosone was elected Salt Lake City judge in 1936 and served until elected to Congress. During the Second World War, she was chairman of Women's Army Corps Civilian Advisory Committee of the Ninth Service Command. In the 1940s, Bosone hosted her own weekly radio show on KDLY called <i>Her Honor, the Judge</i>, in which she presented legal case studies. She served as official observer at the United Nations Conference at San Francisco in 1945 and as the first director of Utah State Board for Education on Alcoholism in 1947 and 1948.</p>

<p>Bosone was elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-first and Eighty-second Congresses (January 3, 1949 – January 3, 1953). While in office, Bosone advocated for social welfare programs including extending Social Security for military personnel, and voted against the Subversive Activities Control and Communist Registration Act. In 1949–1951 Bosone served on the Public Lands Committee, and in 1951–1953 she also served on the House Administration Committee. She was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1952 to the Eighty-third Congress and for election in 1954 to the Eighty-fourth Congress. She served as delegate to Democratic National Conventions in 1952 and 1956. She resumed the practice of law in Salt Lake City from 1953 to 1957 and was legal counsel to Safety and Compensation Subcommittee of House Committee on Education and Labor 1957–1960. She was also a judicial officer of the Post Office Department in 1961–1968. Bosone was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Utah in 1977. She was a resident of Vienna, Virginia, until her death there July 21, 1983.</p>