Image courtesy of Library of Congress.

GRASSO, Ella Tambussi, a Representative from Connecticut; born Ella Rose Tambussi in Windsor Locks, Hartford County, Conn., May 10, 1919; attended the St. Mary’s School in Windsor Locks, and the Chaffee School in Windsor; B.A., Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Mass., 1940; M.A. same college, 1942; during the Second World War served as assistant director of research for the War Manpower Commission of Connecticut; Connecticut house of representatives, 1953-1957, and became first woman to be elected floor leader, 1955; secretary of State of Connecticut, 1958, and reelected, 1962, 1966; first woman chairman, Democratic State Platform Committee, 1956-1968; member, Platform Drafting Committee, 1960, Democratic National Convention; cochairman, Resolutions Committee, Democratic National Conventions, 1964, 1968; elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-second and Ninety-third Congresses (January 3, 1971-January 3, 1975); was not a candidate for reelection in 1974 to the Ninety-fourth Congress but was elected Governor of Connecticut in 1974 for the four-year term commencing January 1975; reelected in 1978; resigned due to a physical disability, December 31, 1980; resided in Windsor Locks, Conn., until her death in Hartford, Conn., February 5, 1981; interment in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Windsor Locks, Conn.