Byron, Katharine Edgar, 1903-1976

<p>Maryland’s first woman Member in Congress, Katharine Edgar Byron, came to the U.S. House after winning a special election to succeed her husband who died in a plane crash. Congresswoman Byron became a firm supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s foreign policies during World War II.</p>

<p>Katharine Edgar was born on October 25, 1903, to Brigadier General Clinton Goodloe and Mary McComas Edgar in Detroit, Michigan, where General Edgar was posted. Katharine’s mother, Mary, belonged to a prominent political family from western Maryland. Her grandfather, Louis Emory McComas, had served in the House and Senate during the late nineteenth century. Katharine, one of two children, spent an affluent and politically connected childhood based in the McComas estate, Springfield Farm, in western Maryland. She attended elite private schools such as the Westover School in Middlebury, Connecticut, and the Holton Arms School in Montgomery County, Maryland, just outside Washington, DC.</p>

<p>In 1922 Katharine met and married William Devereux Byron, a World War I aviator and the owner of a leather manufacturing business. The couple had five sons: William, James, Goodloe, David, and Louis. William Byron was mayor of Williamsport, Maryland, a member of the state senate, and a member of the Maryland Roads Commission. In 1938 he successfully ran for the U.S. House as a Democrat in a district that covered western Maryland, including the towns of Frederick and Hagerstown. Byron won a tight re-election race in 1940 against the legendary professional baseball pitcher Walter “Big Train” Johnson, who had played for and coached the Washington Senators. Katharine Byron aided her husband’s political career through her activities with local organizations such as the Red Cross flood disaster committee. She also served as town commissioner for Williamsport during William’s House service. Additionally, Katharine was one of Washington’s well-known Democratic hostesses from the Byron family home in northwest Washington.</p>

<p>Katharine Edgar Byron (October 25, 1903 – December 28, 1976), a Democrat, was a U.S. Congresswoman who represented the 6th congressional district of Maryland from May 27, 1941 to January 3, 1943. She was the first woman elected to Congress from Maryland.</p>

<p>Katharine Edgar was born in Detroit, Michigan on October 25, 1902 to Mary (née McComas) and Brigadier General Clinton Goodloe Edgar. She attended independent schools during her youth, such as the Liggett School in Detroit, the Westover School of Middlebury, Connecticut, and the Holton-Arms School of Bethesda, Maryland. She later moved to Williamsport, Maryland, in 1922. The Byrons were communicants of Saint John's Church.</p>

<p>She was a granddaughter of U.S. Senator Louis E. McComas, who represented the 6th congressional district of Maryland.</p>