Anderson, Eugenie M. (Eugenie Moore), 1909-1997

Eugenie Moore Anderson was born in 1909 in Adair, Iowa, the daughter of Flora Belle Moore and Methodist minister Ezekiel Arrowsmith Moore. In pursuit of a musical career she studied at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, and at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. In 1929 she transferred to Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, where she met John Pierce Anderson from Red Wing, Minnesota. They were married in 1930 and moved to New York City, where Eugenie continued her musical studies at the Institute of Musical Art and John pursued his art interests. Several years later the couple returned to live at Tower View, the Anderson family farm in Red Wing.

In 1944 Eugenie Anderson became active in Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) politics, having previously worked with the League of Women Voters, served on the local school board, and participated in other civic organizations. She was especially interested in problems of international affairs and gave many speeches under DFL auspices on the United Nations and foreign policy matters. In 1948 Anderson was elected Democratic national committeewoman and a Minnesota delegate-at-large to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia; there she campaigned actively for Harry S. Truman and Hubert H. Humphrey.

In October 1949 President Truman appointed Anderson United States Ambassador to Denmark; she was the first American woman to serve as the chief of a mission abroad. While ambassador she was also chosen as United States representative to the third session of the United Nations Ad Hoc Commission on Prisoners of War, which convened in August 1952. Later that year Anderson additionally spent several weeks campaigning for United States presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson and was a principal speaker at the Democratic National Convention. When she resigned from her ambassadorial post in January 1953, Anderson returned to Red Wing with the Grand Cross of the Order of Dannebrog, Denmark's highest honor, awarded to her by King Frederik IX.

From 1953 to 1962 Anderson travelled and lectured throughout western Europe, India, and the United States as both private citizen and official representative for various government bodies. In 1957 she toured the Iron Curtain country refugee camps in Europe as a member of the Zellerbach Commission. From 1959 to 1961 she served as a board member of the American Association for the United Nations, a board member of the U.S. Committee for Refugees, and a member of the Democratic National Advisory Committee on Foreign Policy. From 1961 to 1962 Anderson served as vice chairwoman of the Citizens' Committee for International Development.

Minnesota government and the DFL Party tapped her skills as well during this period. From 1955 to 1960 Anderson chaired the Minnesota State Commission for Fair Employment Practices. In 1957 Governor Orville Freeman appointed her chairwoman of the Minnesota Centennial International Guests program. In early 1958 Anderson challenged Eugene McCarthy for the DFL endorsement in the United States Senate race but was defeated. Yet she continued to take an active role in party politics, especially working to strengthen Hubert Humphrey's political base in and outside Minnesota.

In 1962 Eugenie Anderson was named American Minister to Bulgaria by President John F. Kennedy, thus becoming the first American woman to serve as chief of a diplomatic mission in a Soviet bloc country. She served in this post until December 1964.

From 1965 to 1968 Anderson accepted several appointments as part of the official United States delegation to the United Nations in New York. In August 1965 she was chosen to be United States representative to the United Nations Trusteeship Council; eventually she was elected president of this body. In July 1966 Anderson also became alternate United States representative to the United Nations Security Council. In 1967 President Lyndon B. Johnson sent her to Vietnam to observe the progress of the Revolutionary Development Program, a large-scale political and social stabilization effort.

Between 1968 and 1972 Anderson began to relinquish her official United Nations responsibilities. She returned to Minnesota and campaigned intensively for Hubert Humphrey, both for president in 1968 and for United States senator in 1970.

Eugenie and John Anderson had a son, Hans Anderson; a daughter, Elizabeth Johanna (Anderson) Ghei; and six grandchildren.