Hooley, Darlene

Darlene Olson Hooley was born in Williston, North Dakota on April 4, 1939. At the age of eight her parents moved to Salem, Oregon. In 1961 she graduated from Oregon State University with a Bachelor of Science in Education. In addition to pursuing post-graduate work at Oregon State and Portland State Universities, Hooley taught physical education, music and reading in several Portland-area high schools from 1961 to 1970. In 1965 she married John Hooley and they raised two children, Chad and Erin, before divorcing in 1995.

In the early 1970’s Hooley’s son was injured in a playground accident in West Linn, Oregon. The city’s lack of response to playground safety issues motivated Hooley to enter politics and in1976 she became the first woman member of the West Linn city council. In 1980 she entered the Oregon State House of Representatives where she served until 1987. During her time in the state legislature she focused on bills dealing with public kindergartens, equity pay and reform of the state’s welfare system.

After leaving the state legislature in 1987 Hooley again broke new ground when she became the first woman elected to the Clackamas County board of commissioners. In 1996 she was elected as a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives and was a member of the One Hundred Fifth to the One Hundred Tenth Congresses (January 3, 1997-January 3, 2009). She was not a candidate for reelection in 2008.

During her first term in office, Hooley was elected House Democratic freshman class president. Additionally, during her tenure, she was a House Senior Whip for the Democratic Party and a member of the New Democrat Coalition. As a member of the House Financial Services Committee she advocated adapting banking laws and acting to disrupt the financial foundations of terrorist networks and focused on issues surrounding identity theft prevention and increasing medical and financial privacy. In 2003, she was a key sponsor of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (HR 2622), which gave Americans the right to free credit reports. A staunch advocate of a federal prohibition of online poker, Hooley cosponsored H.R. 4411, the Goodlatte-Leach Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, in 2006.

In 2002, Hooley voted against the authorization of the use of military force in Iraq. As a member of the Veterans' Affairs committee, she focused on issues of veterans' health care and deployment of National Guard troops to the Iraq War.

Since retiring from Congress Hooley lives in Oregon.

From the guide to the Darlene Hooley papers, 1996-2009, (Willamette University University Archives and Special Collections)