[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 6 (Tuesday, February 1, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 1, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                     TRIBUTE TO EMILY TAFT DOUGLAS

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to someone 
whom I have admired for many years, Emily Taft Douglas, a writer and 
former Member of the House of Representatives, who died of cardiac 
arrest on Friday at the age of 94.
  Mrs. Douglas was the daughter of sculptor Lorado Taft, a distant 
cousin of William Howard Taft, the former U.S. President and Chief 
Justice, and the widow of former Senator Paul H. Douglas. But having 
served in the House of Representatives from 1945 to 1947, she was the 
first American woman to precede a husband to Congress, and a path 
breaker in her own right.
  As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Mrs. Douglas was 
an active proponent of post-war U.N. Relief and Rehabilitation Agency 
programs. Immediately following the war she traveled extensively in 
war-ravaged Europe, backing the relief efforts of the United Nations.
  Continuing her campaign for the underserved, Mrs. Douglas introduced 
legislation for library bookmobiles to bring library services to rural 
America. In her name, a bill ultimately passed as the Hill-Douglas Act 
following her husband's election to the U.S. Senate in 1948. The 
positive effects of her legislation are still felt throughout South 
Dakota.
  Following her term in the House of Representatives, Mrs. Douglas was 
active in the civil rights movement, participating in the 1964 Selma 
Alabama civil rights march and serving as a representative to UNESCO 
and other U.N. conferences.
  Mrs. Douglas extended her contribution to the Nation through her 
literary work as the author of three well-received novels. A fine 
person and a true pioneer, Mrs. Douglas will be missed by all whose 
lives she touched.

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