Ashbrook, Jean Spencer, 1934-

<p>Jean Ashbrook, who once described herself as “a smalltown girl who enjoyed the role of wife and mother,” came to Congress in a manner that by the 1980s had become less conventional for women: the widow’s mandate. Congresswoman Ashbrook served out the remaining seven months of John Milan Ashbrook’s term and retired when her Ohio district was reapportioned out of existence.</p>

<p>Emily Jean Spencer was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on September 21, 1934. She attended schools in Newark, Ohio, and graduated from Newark High School in 1952. Spencer received a bachelor of science degree from Ohio State University in 1956. In 1974 she married John Ashbrook, a lawyer, newspaper publisher, and son of a former conservative Democratic Representative from Ohio. As a homemaker, Jean Ashbrook raised three children from a previous marriage: Elizabeth, Katherine, and John. She also served as a member of several charities and political clubs. John Ashbrook had children of his own, three daughters from a marriage to Joan Needles which ended in divorce in 1971.</p>

<p>John Ashbrook, who followed in his father’s professional footsteps, was elected as a Republican to 11 terms as the U.S. Representative from an Ohio district that covered a large swath of the north-central part of the state, an agricultural region with the town of Mansfield as its largest population center. Congressman Ashbrook served as the Ranking Republican on the Education and Labor Committee and also on the Judiciary and Select Intelligence committees. Ashbrook earned the reputation as one of the House’s most “militant and dedicated” conservatives but also one of its most independent. “I have never felt I had to go along with anything,” he once remarked, “and getting along is not important to me.” This sentiment rang true when Ashbrook challenged President Richard M. Nixon for the Republican nomination in 1972. Undeterred by the opposition he received from many conservatives in the GOP, Ashbrook entered the race to draw attention to what he perceived as the “leftward drift” of the Nixon administration.</p>

<p>Emily Jean Spencer Ashbrook (née Spencer; born September 21, 1934) is a former American politician. She is the widow of Congressman John M. Ashbrook, Republican of Ohio. She is a former Member of Congress, having completed her late husband's final term of office, also as a Republican.</p>

<p>Ashbrook was born Emily Jean Spencer on September 21, 1934, in Cincinnati, Ohio. She attended Central School in Newark, Ohio, and graduated from Newark High School in 1952. She went on to graduate with a bachelor's degree from Ohio State University, where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, in 1956.</p>

<p>She married John Ashbrook in 1974. After her husband's death on April 24, 1982, she won the special election for the seat in Congress he had occupied; it is relatively common in American politics of the last several decades for widows to succeed their late husbands in office if only to complete their husbands' terms. She served for the remainder of the 97th Congress and represented Ohio's 17th congressional district from June 29, 1982 to January 3, 1983.</p>