Hawkins, Paula, 1927-2009

Paula Hawkins (née Fickes, January 24, 1927 – December 4, 2009) was an American politician from Florida. She is the only woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Florida. A member of the Republican Party, she was the second woman ever elected to the Senate from the American South. She was the first woman in the country to be elected to a full Senate term without having a close family member who previously served in major public office.

Born in Salt Lake City, Paula Fickes was raised there, in Atlanta, Georgia, Logan, Utah, and Richmond, Utah. She attended Utah State University, taking a job as a secretary for the university’s director of athletics there. After her marriage to Gene Hawkins, the couple settled in Atlanta, where her husband studied electrical engineering, before moving to Winter Park, Florida in 1955. In Florida, Hawkins first entered public affairs as a community activist and volunteer for the local Republican Party organization, rising to co-chair Richard M. Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign in Florida. Hawkins’s work as a GOP regular provided her the base from which to launch a political career, winning election to the Florida public service commission where she served from 1972 to 1979. In 1980, she defeated former Congressman Bill Gunter to win election to the United States Senate. Active in the realm of child welfare. She was a key figure in advocating and passing the 1982 Missing Children's Act, and in 1983 chaired the Investigation and Oversight Subcommittee of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, where she launched an investigation of the increase of children reported missing.

In 1986, Hawkins lost her re-election bid to then-Governor Bob Graham, and returned to Winter Park in early 1987. She was United States representative to the Organization of American States Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) for 7 years before leaving active politics. She remained involved behind the scenes in central Florida and her endorsement was sought by many candidates. She died on December 4, 2009 from complications of a fall she suffered the previous day.