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| Image courtesy of Library of Congress |
DOUGLAS, Helen Gahagan, a Representative from California; born in Boonton, Morris County,
N.J., November 25, 1900; attended the public schools, Berkeley School for
Girls, Brooklyn, N.Y., Capen School for Girls, Northampton, Mass., and Barnard
College, New York City; moved to Los Angeles, Calif., in 1931; engaged in the
theatrical profession and also as an opera singer 1922-1938; Democratic
National committeewoman for California 1940-1944; vice chairman of the
Democratic State central committee and chairman of the womens division
1940-1944; member of the national advisory committee of the Works Progress
Administration and of the State committee of the National Youth Administration
in 1939 and 1940; member of the board of governors of the California Housing
and Planning Association in 1942 and 1943; appointed by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt as a member of the Voluntary Participation Committee, Office of
Civilian Defense; appointed by President Harry S. Truman as alternate United
States Delegate to the United Nations Assembly; elected as a Democrat to the
Seventy-ninth, Eightieth, and Eighty-first Congresses (January 3, 1945-January
3, 1951); was not a candidate for renomination in 1950, but was unsuccessful
for election to the United States Senate; lecturer and author; appointed by
President Johnson as Special Ambassador to head United States delegation to
inauguration ceremonies of President William V.S. Tubman of Liberia in 1964;
resided in New York City until her death on June 28, 1980.
BibliographyDouglas, Helen Gahagan.
A Full Life. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1982; Denton, Sally. The Pink Lady: The Many Lives of Helen Gahagan Douglas. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2009.
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