Grasso, Ella, 1919-1981

Ella Rosa Giovianna Oliva Grasso, née Tambussi (May 10, 1919 – February 5, 1981) was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served as the 83rd Governor of Connecticut from January 8, 1975, to December 31, 1980, after rejecting past offers of candidacies for Senate and Governor. She was the first woman elected to this office and the first woman to be elected governor of a U.S. state without having been the spouse or widow of a former governor. She resigned as governor due to her battle with ovarian cancer.

Born in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, Grasso learned to speak fluent from her immigrant parents. After graduating from Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut, she went on to study sociology and economics at Mount Holyoke College, in South Hadley, Massachusetts, where she earned her B.A. in 1940. Two years later, she earned a master's degree, also from Mount Holyoke. After graduation, Grasso served as a researcher for the War Manpower Commission in Washington, D.C., rising to the position of assistant director of research before leaving the Commission in 1946.

Grasso started in politics as a member of the League of Women Voters and Democratic speechwriter. She was first elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1952 and later became the first female Floor Leader in 1955. She was then elected as Secretary of State of Connecticut in 1958 and served until 1971. Grasso went on to serve two terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1970 to 1974. Then she was elected Governor in 1974 and re-elected in 1978. In March 1980, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and resigned from the governorship on December 31.

On February 5, 1981, less than a year after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer and less than six weeks after leaving office, Grasso died at Hartford Hospital after suffering a heart attack and organ failure after falling into a coma earlier in the day. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan posthumously awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom; the National Women's Hall of Fame inducted her in 1993. Grasso was also a member of the inaugural class inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame in 1994.