Kee, Maude Elizabeth, 1895-1975

Maude Elizabeth Kee (née Simpkins; June 7, 1895 – February 15, 1975), known more generally as Elizabeth Kee, was an American newspaper columnist, secretary, and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the first woman elected to Congress from West Virginia, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1951 until her retirement in 1965.

Born in Radford, Virginia and raised there and in Roanoke, Virginia, she attended the National Business College before taking a job as a secretary for the business office of the Roanoke Times newspaper and, later, as a court reporter for a law firm. After her first marriage ended in divorce, she moved to Bluefield, West Virginia and married attorney John Kee. Following his election to the U.S. House, Elizabeth Kee served as his executive secretary throughout his congressional career, including his service after 1949 as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in addition to authoring "Washington Tidbits," a weekly column syndicated to West Virginia newspapers.

John Kee died suddenly on May 8, 1951, during a committee meeting. Four days later, Elizabeth Kee announced that she planned to seek nomination to fill her late husband’s seat. Her son, James, campaigned heavily with United Mine Workers Association leaders in the district, convincing them that John Kee had several projects developing in Congress and that Elizabeth Kee could attend to them unlike any outsider. That strategy worked as the United Mine Workers Union—a powerhouse in her district which encompassed seven coal-mining counties and the famous Pocahontas coal fields—threw its weight behind the widow Kee, allowing her to win the Democratic primary. Victorious in the special election, she would go on to be re-elected six times, each time with a sizable majority of the vote.

While serving in Congress, Kee served on the House Government Operations, Interior and Insular Affairs, and Veterans Affairs Committees, chairing the latter's Veterans' Hospitals Subcommittee. After struggling to win support for her economic redevelopment plans for her home district in West Virginia during the Eisenhower Administration, Congresswoman Kee threw her support behind President John F. Kennedy's campaign in 1960 and, through the Accelerated Public Works Act, funneled millions of dollars through an Area Redevelopment Administration to the state. She did not sign the 1956 Southern Manifesto, and voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960, as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but voted present on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. She did not run for re-election in 1964, and was succeeded in Congress by her son, James Kee. She died in Bluefield, West Virginia.