Green, Edith, 1910-1987

Edith Louise Starrett Green (January 17, 1910 – April 21, 1987) was an American politician and educator from Oregon. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the second woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Oregon, serving a total of ten terms, from 1955 to 1974.

Born Edith Louise Starrett in Trent, South Dakota, her family moved to Oregon in 1916, where she attended schools in Salem, attending Willamette University from 1927 to 1929. She worked as a schoolteacher and advocate of education in 1929, married Arthur N. Green in 1930, leaving school to begin a family. She went back to school at the University of Oregon, graduating in 1939. After 11 years as an educator, Green became an announcer at KALE radio station in Portland, Oregon, and also served as legislative chairperson of the Oregon Congress of Parents and Teachers for three years.

After losing her 1952 bid to become Oregon's secretasry of state, she garnered enough public exposure to make a competitive run for the House seat encompassing much of Portland, Oregon, and its eastern suburbs in 1954. Easily winning the Democratic primary, she narrowly defeated future Governor Tom McCall in the November general election. Green went on to win her nine succeeding elections with ease, rarely facing any serious opposition. During her time in Congress, Green advanced women's issues, education, and social reform; she played an instrumental role in passing the 1972 Equal Opportunity in Education Act, better known as Title IX. Though initially a strong advocate for the Democratic Party agenda, her opposition to the expanded role of the federal government caused her to gradually

Green decided not to seek an eleventh term in 1974 and resigned on December 31, 1974, just before her final term would have otherwise expired. She returned to Portland, Oregon, and became a professor of government at Warner Pacific College. She was appointed to the Oregon State Board of Higher Education in 1979. Later living in Wilsonville, she was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the President's Commission on White House Fellowships in 1981. She died in Tualatin, Oregon.