Gasque, Elizabeth Hawley, 1886-1989

Elizabeth Gasque Van Exem (February 26, 1886 – November 2, 1989), named Elizabeth Hawley Gasque during her tenure in Congress, was an American author, lecturer, farmer, and politician. She was the first woman elected to Congress from South Carolina, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from September 1938 to January 1939.

Born Elizabeth Mills Hawley near Blythewood, South Carolina was a member of the southern aristocracy and spent her childhood on the expansive “Rice Creek” plantation, which covered 4,000 acres. She attended the South Carolina Coeducational Institute in Edgefield, South Carolina, and graduated with a degree in expression (drama) from Greenville Female College (now Furman University) in 1907, the year she married Allard H. Gasque, a teacher and school administrator. In 1923 Allard Gasque won election to the first of eight terms as a U.S. Representative from South Carolina, eventually becoming the chairman of the Committee on Pensions and a champion of war veterans and their families. It was during her husband’s congressional service that Bessie Gasque fell in love with Washington, plunging into the social scene. She became one of the regular hosts of an annual ball to raise funds to fight polio, held on President Franklin Roosevelt’s birthday. Washington became her “natural home."

After her husband's death, state and local Democratic leaders persuaded Bessie Gasque to run for her husband’s unexpired term; even the filing fee was provided for her.8 In the perfunctory one-party special election of September 13, 1938, Elizabeth Gasque succeeded her late husband in little more than name. The election took place on the same day as that for her successor, John L. McMillan, a former secretary to Allard Gasque, was elected to the full term in the 76th Congress. Gasque never received any committee assignments, and she was never sworn into office.

After the 75th Congress officially ended in January 1939, Gasque returned to South Carolina. She maintained her social ties in Washington, remaining active largely through her membership in the Congressional Club. After former South Carolina Senator Nathaniel Barksdale Dial died in Washington in 1940, Gasque shared a Washington home with Dial’s widow, who was noted for her parties. Locally, Gasque was active in dramatics and was an author and lecturer. At one point she served as the head of the Fine Arts Department of South Carolina’s Federation of Women’s Clubs. In her many travels, she was a constant booster of South Carolina as a vacation destination. She eventually married A. J. Van Exem. The couple lived at Cedar Tree Plantation in Ridgeway, South Carolina, where she became a master tree farmer. She died on November 2, 1989, at the age of 103.