Wingo, Effiegene Locke, 1883-1962

<p>Effiegene Locke Wingo (April 13, 1883 – September 19, 1962) was a U.S. Representative from Arkansas, wife of Otis Theodore Wingo and great-great-great-granddaughter of Matthew Locke.</p>

<p>Born in Lockesburg in Sevier County in southwestern Arkansas, Wingo attended public and private schools and Union Female College in Oxford, Mississippi. She graduated in 1901 from Maddox Seminary in Little Rock. She lived in Little Rock and Texarkana, Arkansas, before establishing her permanent residence in De Queen in Sevier County.</p>

<p>Wingo was elected as a Democrat on November 4, 1930, to the 71st Congress to fill the vacancy caused by her husband's death, and on the same day was elected to the 72nd Congress and served from November 4, 1930, to March 3, 1933. She was not a candidate for renomination in 1932. Osro Cobb, then a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives and later the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, was urged by his party to challenge Wingo for the congressional vacancy, but he instead endorsed the Democrat. In a statement, Cobb said that Wingo "is eminently qualified to fill the position left by her late husband, and I would not under any circumstances oppose her in the general election."</p>

<p>In 1934, Wingo co-founded the National Institute of Public Affairs in Washington, D.C. She also engaged in educational and research work. Wingo died September 19, 1962, in Burlington, Ontario, Canada, while visiting a son. She is interred along with her husband at Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C.</p>

<p>Overcoming personal tragedy, Effiegene Locke Wingo succeeded her late husband in Congress to help her Arkansas constituents cope with an appalling national emergency. In the early days of the Great Depression, Wingo relied on her experience and connections as an active congressional wife to bring relief to her drought-stricken and impoverished Arkansas district.</p>

<p>Effiegene Locke, the eldest of seven children raised by Irish parents and the great-great-great-granddaughter of Representative Matthew Locke of North Carolina, was born on April 13, 1883, in Lockesburg, Arkansas. She attended both public and private schools and received a music diploma from the Union Female College in Oxford, Mississippi. Effiegene Locke then graduated with a BA from the Maddox Seminary in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1901. Shortly after graduation she met lawyer Otis Theodore Wingo, in De Queen, Arkansas, at a Confederate veterans’ reunion. The couple soon married and raised two children: Blanche and Otis Jr. In 1907 Otis Wingo was elected to a term in the Arkansas state senate, where he served until 1909 before returning to private business. He won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1912 and to the eight succeeding Congresses. During Otis Wingo’s political career, his wife became immersed in the social side of political life in Washington, DC.</p>

<p>In 1926 a car accident severely injured Representative Wingo, thrusting Effiegene into a far more active role. For four years she worked as an unpaid assistant in her husband’s office, becoming his point of contact during long absences as he sought to recuperate from his injuries. That direct experience—tending to constituent requests—gave her valuable exposure to voters and a keen understanding of the district’s political and business networks. Following an emergency operation, Otis Wingo (who was serving his ninth term in Congress) died in Baltimore, Maryland, on October 21, 1930. His dying wish was that his wife be chosen as his successor. That appeal prompted Otis Wingo’s friend and the chief Democratic contender for the vacant seat, A. B. Du Laney, to peremptorily withdraw from the race and back Effiegene Wingo. Newspapers described that act as “gallant” and “chivalrous.” Less than a week after Otis Wingo’s death, the Arkansas Democratic and Republican central committees, both of which earlier that year had nominated Otis Wingo for the seat, chose Effiegene Wingo to replace her late husband. Several speakers at the GOP meeting spoke up to of fer eulogies for her husband. According to the standard study on Southern politics in the early twentieth century, comity between the major parties was a regular occurrence in Arkansas politics. The state’s political network was controlled largely by conservative Democrats, who differed little from their Republican counterparts on major issues of public policy. Political scientist V. O. Key explained Arkansas elections by paraphrasing a prominent local politician who described them as “‘rivalries’ that turn around ‘personalities and emotions’ of the moment” featuring candidates with “connections” within the political network. Effiegene Wingo, a congressional widow with whom voters empathized, and who enjoyed wide name recognition, fit the pattern well. Facing no competition, she was elected simultaneously on November 4, 1930, to complete her husband’s term in the 71st Congress (1929–1931) and to a full term 72nd Congress (1931–1933). She garnered 21,700 votes, more than four of the state’s six other Representatives.</p>