[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 131 (Saturday, September 26, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1828-E1829]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO ELIZABETH SNYDER

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. NANCY PELOSI

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Saturday, September 26, 1998

  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the accomplishments of 
Elizabeth Synder, a long time civic leader who helped pave the way for 
women to assume positions of leadership in California, who died in Los 
Angeles on August 26, 1998 of complications related to emphysema. She 
was 84.
  Elizabeth first came to national attention in 1954, when she was 
elected Chair of the California Democratic Party, becoming the first 
woman in the United States to be elected chair of a major political 
party in any state. In a career that spanned more than half a century, 
Elizabeth worked prominently in the California presidential campaigns 
of Harry Truman, Adlai Stevenson, and Lyndon Johnson and served as the 
California Co-Chair of President Jimmy Carter's 1976 Presidential 
campaign. As one who benefited from Liz's leadership, her advice when I 
served as Chair of the California Democratic Party and her friendship 
for many years, I am pleased to call Liz's accomplishments to the 
attention of my colleagues.
  Born on April 8, 1914, in Minnesota of immigrant parents, Elizabeth 
and her family moved to San Diego in the early 1920's. Following the 
collapse of her father's business at the outset of the Great 
Depression, Elizabeth, her mother and two brothers relocated to East 
Los Angeles where life was, in her words, ``lean, precarious and 
hard.'' Elizabeth graduated with honors from Garfield High School in 
1931. She studied at Los Angeles City College and in 1933, matriculated 
as a political science major at UCLA, where she went on to become one 
of the first two doctoral candidates in UCLA's political science 
department.
  In 1939, her mother's failing health required Elizabeth to leave her 
post-graduate studies to go to work. Elizabeth became a substitute high 
school teacher in Los Angeles. Already

[[Page E1829]]

active in Young Democrats, Elizabeth became involved in the workings of 
government as she became a volunteer lobbyist speaking out on behalf of 
substitute teachers in Sacramento. In 1940, she was elected to serve at 
the Democratic National Convention as the alternative delegate for her 
first political mentor, Congressman Jerry Voorhis, who was later 
defeated by Richard M. Nixon in his first bid for public office. In 
that same year, she married attorney Nathan H. Snyder, her husband of 
fifty-eight years. During WW II, Elizabeth worked for the Canadian 
government in Washington, D.C. and returned to California where she 
became involved in the first of many Congressional campaigns on behalf 
of her lifelong friend and mentor, Chet Holifield.
  None of her political activities was more important to Elizabeth than 
her life long effort to bring about greater participation by women in 
the political arena. During the 1970's, Elizabeth devoted herself to 
the mentoring of Los Angeles women in politics, holding weekly luncheon 
meetings of the Thursday Group at her Bunker Hill apartment. Her 
dedication to improving our society extended beyond the realm of 
politics. Among the many issues to which Liz gave much time and effort 
in her final years, she was especially proud of her work on the 
prevention of fetal alcohol syndrome, which culminated in ordinances 
requiring the posting in restaurants and bars of warnings to women 
regarding the dangers of alcohol consumption during pregnancy.
  In addition to all of her varied civic activities, Elizabeth will be 
remembered fondly by the literally thousands of men and women in all 
walks of life to whom she provided comfort and assistance in overcoming 
the adversities of alcoholism and substance abuse.
  In 1994, she received the prestigious CORO Public Affairs Award in 
recognition of her life long commitment to the reform of the American 
system of government in which she so deeply believed. As Elizabeth 
herself once wrote: ``In the last analysis, the most significant single 
political activity is not winning elections and defeating opponents: It 
is improving, expanding and correcting government structure, so that 
democracy works.'' Her life is profiled in the University of California 
Bancroft Library, ``Women in Politics Oral History Project'' and in her 
autobiography, ``A Ride On the Political Merry-Go-Round.''
  Sadly, I send my condolences and those of my fellow California 
Congressional Democrats to Liz's dear husband, Nathan and her daughter, 
Christina A. Snyder and her son-in-law, Marc M. Seltzer.

                          ____________________