Rogers, Edith Nourse, 1881-1960

Edith Nourse Rogers (March 19, 1881 – September 10, 1960) was an American social welfare volunteer and politician who served in the United States Congress. She was the first woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts.

Born in Saco, Maine, her parents' affluence allowed Edith Nourse to be privately tutored until she was fourteen. She then attended and graduated from Rogers Hall School, a private boarding school for girls in Lowell, Massachusetts, and Madame Julien's School, a finishing school at Neuilly in Paris, France. In 1907, she married John Jacob Rogers. In 1911, he started his career in politics, becoming involved in the city government, and the next year he became the school commissioner. In 1912 he was elected as a Republican to the 63rd United States Congress as the Representative from the 5th District of Massachusetts, and began service in Washington, D.C. on March 4, 1913. During her husband's time in Congress, Edith Rogers volunteered with the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in London for a short time, then from 1917 to 1922 as a "Gray Lady" with the American Red Cross in France and with the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Following the end of the First World War, her husband joined the American Legion veteran's organization, and she joined the auxiliary. Her experience with veteran's issues led President Warren G. Harding to appoint her as the inspector of new veterans' hospitals from 1922 to 1923, for $1 USD a year. She reported on conditions and her appointment was renewed by both the Coolidge and Hoover administrations. Her first experience in politics was serving as an elector in the U.S. Electoral College during Calvin Coolidge's 1924 presidential campaign.

Upon her husband's passing in 1925, Rogers was spurred by pressure from the Republican Party and the American Legion to run in the special election for his seat. In her 35 years in the House of Representatives she was a powerful voice for veterans and sponsored seminal legislation, including the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (commonly known as the G.I. Bill), which provided educational and financial benefits for veterans returning home from World War II, the 1942 bill that created the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), and the 1943 bill that created the Women's Army Corps (WAC). She was also instrumental in bringing federal appropriations to her constituency, Massachusetts's 5th congressional district.

Though considered a formidable candidate for U.S. Senate in 1958 against the much younger John F. Kennedy, she decided not to run. Edith Rogers died of pneumonia in Boston in the midst of her 19th Congressional campaign. She was interred with her husband in Lowell Cemetery, in their hometown of Lowell.