Jessica Weis, 1901-1963

Jessica ("Judy") Weis, Republican Party activist and member of the U.S. House of Representatives, was born July 8, 1901, in Chicago, Ill., the daughter of Jessie (Martin) and Charles H. McCullough, Jr. After attending elementary school in Buffalo, N.Y., she went to Miss Wright's School in Bryn Mawr, Pa., and Madame Rieffel's School in New York City. In 1921 she married Charles W. Weis, Jr., and moved to Rochester, N.Y., where she raised three children, joined the Junior League and various other charitable organizations, started the Chatterbox Club (amateur theatricals), and became increasingly active in the Republican Party. JW always encouraged women to be active in politics, as party workers and as candidates for public office. She supported the Equal Rights Amendment and often participated in the annual Rochester celebration honoring Susan B. Anthony. Her busy political life is reflected in the following chronology.

• 1920s-early 1930s : Neighborhood canvassing, ringing doorbells, organizing women
• 1935: Appointed vice-chair of the Republican Citizens Finance Committee
• 1936: Organized motorcades to campaign for Alfred M. Landon
• 1937 - 1944 : Member of Advisory Committee of National Federation of Women's Republican Clubs
• 1937 - 1952 : Vice-chair of Monroe County Republican Committee
• 1938: Monroe County delegate to Republican Educational League Council of N.Y.
• 1940: Member of Committee of 48, which notified Wendell Willkie of his nomination Delegate-at-large from N.Y. to Republican National Convention
• 1940 - 1942 : President of National Federation of Women's Republican Clubs, addressed meetings in 30 states
• ca. 1940: Became a member of state Republican Executive Committee
• 1943 - 1958 : Republican National Committeewoman from N.Y.
• 1944: Delegate, and vice-chair of N.Y. delegation, to Republican National Convention
• 1948: Associate manager of the Thomas Dewey/ Earl Warren campaign Delegate, and vice-chair of N.Y. delegation, to Republican National Convention; seconded Dewey's nomination
• 1952 - : Member of Republican National Committee's Executive Committee Delegate, and vice-chair of N.Y. delegation, to the Republican National Convention; member of caucus that selected vice-presidential candidate
• 1953 - 1958 : Appointed by President Eisenhower to Advisory Committee of Federal Civil Defense Administration
• 1954: Named a U.S. delegate to Tenth Assembly of Inter-American Commission of Women (unable to attend)
• 1955: Appointed to Committee on Arrangements and chair of Sub-committee on [1956] Convention Program Planning
• 1956: Subject of Arlene Francis NBC Home Show television series Delegate, and vice-chair of N.Y. delegation, to Republican National Convention
• 1958: Husband, Charles W. Weis, Jr., dies
• 1958 - 1962 : Elected to U.S. House of Representatives
• 1960: Assigned to House Committee on Science and Astronautics
• 1962: Ill, does not run for third term
• 1963: Dies May 1 in Rochester, N.Y.

More biographical information is available in this collection. See also Who Was Who in America (1961-1968), and A Minority of Members: Women in the U.S. Congress, by Hope Chamberlin (New York: Praeger, 1973).

From the guide to the Papers, 1922-1963, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)