Ella T. Grasso

Ella T. Grasso

Ella Tambussi Grasso , nee Ella Rosa Giovanna Oliva Tambussi , (born May 10, 1919 in Windsor Locks , Connecticut , †  February 5, 1981 in Hartford , Connecticut) was an American politician and governor of the state of Connecticut. She was a member of the Democratic Party . She was the first woman to be elected state governor and the first to hold that office without being the wife or widow of a previous governor.

Early years and political advancement

Ella Tambussi received her Bachelor of Arts in 1940 and her Master of Arts in Economics and Sociology from Mount Holyoke College in 1942 . In her first year there, she was accepted into the Phi Beta Kappa Association. She married Thomas A. Grasso in 1942. During World War II , she was the assistant director of research for the War Manpower Commission of Connecticut .

Grasso was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1952 and again in 1954 . She served three consecutive terms as Connecticut's Secretary of State , from 1959 to 1970. She was also vice chair of the Executive Committee on Human Rights and Opportunities and chair of the Planning Committee of the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women . She also chaired the Bipartisan Commission to Prepare for the Connecticut Constitutional Convention . In 1965 she was elected as a delegate to the Convention and worked there as a democratic group leader. Grasso also chaired the Democratic State Platform Committee between 1956 and 1968 , was a member of the National Platform Committee in 1960 , and co-chaired the Resolutions Committee of the Democratic National Convention in 1964 and 1968 . She was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1970 and 1972 , where she was distinguished by a clearly liberal voting behavior.

Connecticut Governor

In 1974 Grasso successfully fought for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination and in November of the same year defeated her Republican opponent Robert H. Steele decisively. With her inauguration in January 1975, she became the first woman to hold the office of governor of Connecticut and who achieved that office by merit alone. All previous governors had been wives of previous governors. In September 1978, Grasso beat their challenger, Lieutenant Governor Robert K. Killian , in the primaries and was nominated for a second term. She was re-elected in November with a large majority against Ronald A. Sarasin and began her second four-year term, but she resigned from office on the eve of New Year's Eve 1980 due to cancer. She has been described as more of a symbolic than a doctrinal feminist leader. She refused a legal abortion, but also did not support any promising actions. She also supported the proposed Equal Rights Amendment , but not the campaign for it.

Ella Grasso succumbed to longstanding cancer on February 5, 1981 in Hartford. She is a member of the National Women's Hall of Fame .

Web links

• Ella T. Grasso in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Ella Grasso in the National Governors Association (English)
• Ella T. Grasso in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The News Journal , February 6, 1981