Reid, Charlotte T. (Charlotte Thompson), 1913-2007

<p>Charlotte Thompson Reid (September 27, 1913 – January 25, 2007) served in the U.S. Congress as a U.S. Representative for Illinois from 1963 to 1971. She was a member of the Republican Party.</p>

<p>Charlotte Leota Thompson attended Aurora, Illinois public schools and Illinois College. Early in her career she was a featured vocalist on the NBC radio program Breakfast Club with Don McNeill; she appeared under the professional name of "Annette King".</p>

<p>On January 1, 1938, Charlotte Thompson married Frank R. Reid, Jr. He died in 1962. She was the mother of four children: Illinois State Representative Patricia Reid Lindner, Frank Reid, Susan Reid, and the late Edward Reid. As of 2007 she had eight grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren which include Marley Reid and McKenna Lake Reid. Marley had always looked up to her great grandmother.</p>

<p>Charlotte Thompson Reid had already enjoyed a career as a nationally acclaimed singer before she began her second career relatively late in life as the widow and successor of a congressional candidate who died in mid-campaign. Opponents objected that Reid’s celebrity did not prepare her for public office. But Reid, a fiscal conservative who opposed President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society programs while supporting American intervention in Vietnam, demonstrated her political aptitude by gaining a seat on the prestigious Appropriations Committee in her third term.</p>

<p>Charlotte Leota Thompson was born on September 27, 1913, in Kankakee, Illinois, the only child of Edward Charles Thompson and Ethel (Stith) Thompson. She attended public schools in Aurora and the Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois. In 1932, she left Illinois College, without taking a degree, to pursue her musical interests. In 1936, Thompson auditioned and won a spot on a popular, Chicago-based show, Don McNeill’s “Breakfast Club.” Thompson sang under the name Annette King for nearly three years as the show’s featured vocalist and became a voice familiar to millions of Americans who listened on the National Broadcasting Company network. On January 1,1938, she married Frank R. Reid, an Aurora attorney. They had four children: Patricia, Frank, Edward, and Susan. Charlotte Reid left her music career for marriage and motherhood, pursuing several civic interests in Illinois, including the March of Dimes, the Child Welfare Society, and the Girl Scouts.</p>

<p>In 1962 Frank Reid won the Republican nomination for an Illinois seat in the House of Representatives but died suddenly of a heart attack in August during the campaign. Republican leaders in the traditionally conservative district just west of Chicago persuaded Charlotte Reid to run in her husband’s place. Though she had little political experience, Reid was an effective campaigner. With the support of retiring Illinois Congresswoman Marguerite Church, she won the general election against Democrat Stanley Cowan, a Dundee, Illinois, businessman, with 60 percent of the vote. Reid was sworn in to the House on January 3, 1963.</p>