Mary Teresa Norton

Mary Teresa Norton

Mary Teresa Norton (born March 7, 1875 in Jersey City , New Jersey , †  August 2, 1959 in Greenwich , Connecticut ) was an American politician . Between 1925 and 1951 she was the first woman to represent the state of New Jersey in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Mary Teresa Hopkins, her maiden name, attended the public schools in her home country, including Jersey City High School . Then she was at Packard Business College in New York City until 1896 . From 1916 to 1927 she served as president of the Queen's Daughters' Day Nursery Association of Jersey City , an association of women workers in the city kindergartens. At the same time she began a political career as a member of the Democrats . In 1920 she represented Hudson County on her party's state board. From 1921 to 1931 she was party vice chairman in New Jersey. She then chaired it between 1932 and 1935 and again from 1940 to 1944. In 1922 Norton was elected to the Hudson County County Council. Between 1924 and 1948 she took part in all Democratic National Conventions . In 1945 she was a delegate at an international workers' conference in Paris .

In the 1924 congressional election , Mary Norton became the first woman from New Jersey in the eleventh constituency of the state to be elected to the House of Representatives in Washington, DC , where she succeeded Charles FX O'Brien on March 4, 1925 . After twelve re-elections, she was able to complete a total of 13 legislative terms in Congress by January 3, 1951 . Since 1933 she represented the then newly created 13th district of her state. From 1931 to 1939 she chaired the District of Columbia Administration Committee . From 1937 to 1947 she headed the Committee on Labor ; from 1941 to 1943 she was chair of the Committee on Memorials . During her last term in office, between 1949 and 1951, Norton chaired the Committee on House Administration . During her time in Congress, the New Deal laws of the federal government under President Franklin D. Roosevelt were passed there in the 1930s . Since 1941, the work of the Congress was also shaped by the events of the Second World War and its consequences. In 1933 the 20th and 21st amendments were ratified.

In 1950 Mary Norton declined to run again. In 1951 and 1952 she was advisor to the Ministry of Labor on women's issues. Mary Norton died in Greenwich on August 2, 1959 and was buried in the Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City.

Web links

• Mary Teresa Norton in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Mary Teresa Norton in the database of Find a Grave (English)