|
|
| |
| |
Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Senator Margaret Chase Smith
President George Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush
present Medal of Freedom to Margaret Chase Smith, 1989.
SEN. MARGARET CHASE SMITH
Awarded by
President George Bush
July 6, 1989
As the United States Representative for 8 years, as a three-term Senator, Margaret Chase Smith served the people of Maine and the Nation with distinction. She influenced greatly the development of our postwar foreign and domestic policies, and her abilities and independent spirit made her one of the most admired women in America. A firm believer in a strong national defense, her efforts to improve the status of women in the Navy earned her the affectionate title Mother of the Waves. And for many years of outstanding public service, America proudly honors her.
Senator Margaret Chase Smith (18971995), ca. 1954
National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the U.S. Informati on Agency
Biography
Margaret Chase Smith was born in Skowhegan, Maine, on December 14, 1897. Her entry into politics came through the career of Clyde Smith, the man she married in 1930. Clyde was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1936; Margaret served as his secretary. When Clyde died in 1940, Margaret succeeded her husband. After four terms in the House, she won election to the United States Senate in 1948. In so doing, she became the first woman elected to both houses of Congress.
Senator Smith came to national attention on June 1, 1950, when she became the first member of the Senate to denounce the tactics used by colleague Joseph McCarthy in his anticommunist crusade. Following her "Declaration of Conscience " speech, some pundits speculated that she might be the vice-presidential candidate on the 1952 Republican ticket. The opportunity, however, never materialized. In 1964, Senator Smith pursued her own political ambitions, running in several Republican presidential primaries. She took her candidacy all the way to the Republican National Convention in San Francisco, where she became the first woman to have her name placed in nomination for the presidency by either of the two major parties. Smith came in second to Barry Goldwater.
After four terms in the Senate and thirty-two years in Congress, Senator Smith lost re-election in 1972. She retired to her home in Skowhegan and began planning for the establishment of a library. The Margaret Chase Smith Library opened in 1982 and for the next dozen years, she presided over the facility, meeting with admirers, former constituents, politicians, policymakers, researchers, and school children. Margaret Chase Smith died at her home on Memorial Day, May 29, 1995.
For additional information about this remarkable woman visit the Margaret Chase Smith Library created in her honor.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Medal History
