Corinne Claiborne (“Lindy”) Boggs

BOGGS, CORINNE CLAIBORNE

Corinne Claiborne (“Lindy”) Boggs was a Democratic representative from New Orleans, the first woman from Louisiana elected to the U.S. Congress. During her 17 years in Congress her political acumen and experience made her a popular and effective politician.

Boggs was born March 13, 1916, on Brunswick Plantation, in Louisiana. Her father owned a successful sugar plantation. She received her bachelor’s degree in 1935 from Sophie Newcomb College at Tulane University and taught history in Romeville, Louisiana. Her 1938 marriage to Hale Boggs marked the beginning of an enduring and formidable political dynasty.

Boggs and her husband first went to Washington
in 1940 when he was a first-year representative
from New Orleans. Then only 24 and
26 years old, respectively, the young couple
devoted themselves to the DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
Boggs’s husband lost his bid for reelection in
1942 but regained his seat in 1946, beginning a
string of 22 consecutive victories by him or
Boggs. During the years that her husband was in
Congress, Boggs, in addition to raising their
three children,worked as his campaign manager,
did community work in New Orleans, organized
social events, and devised an innovative billtracking
system for her husband at a time when
no such system existed. When her husband was
killed in an airplane crash in 1972 Boggs ran in
the special election to fill his seat. She won easily,
becoming Louisiana’s first woman—and one
of only 14 women—in Congress.
Although Boggs took her seat in 1973 as a
first-year representative, her three decades as a
congressional wife had given her the types of
contacts enjoyed only by senior members. The
friendships and alliances she had developed with
prominent Democrats helped her gain an
appointment to the House Appropriations
Committee. There she used her influence to
deliver many important appropriations to her
home district, including money for colleges,
hospitals, housing projects; a $10 million energy
research center at the University of New
Orleans; and numerous navigational and hurricane
protection projects.
Boggs built a reputation as a compassionate,
even-tempered lawmaker who quietly worked
long hours in the nitty-gritty, behind-the-scenes
operation of the Appropriations Committee.
Boggs’s other “firsts” included being the first
woman to chair the Democratic National Convention,
in 1976, and the first female regent of
the Smithsonian Institution. At the time of her
retirement, she was the only white congressperson
representing a district where most of the
voters were African American, defying the conventional
wisdom that voters prefer candidates
of their own race.
In addition to her work on the Appropriations
Committee, Boggs served on the Banking,
Currency, and Housing Committee, where she
worked to pass legislation aimed at solving the
housing problems of elderly people and members
of other low- and middle-income groups. A
strong supporter of equal opportunities for
women, she helped pass legislation that guarantees
equal access to credit and prohibits discrimination
on the basis of sex in the granting of
small-business loans.
During her many years in Washington, D.C.,
Boggs acted as an unofficial hostess for the
Democratic party, presiding over parties and
receptions attended by most of the Democrats
in the nation’s capital. In looking back on her
career, Boggs expressed pride in having played a
“small role in opening doors for blacks and
women,” in helping to fund Head Start, and in
securing money for businesses owned by
minorities and women. She stressed that leaving
public office would not mean the end of her
career.
Since leaving the House, Boggs has lectured
at Tulane University and the University of New
Orleans and established the Hale and Lindy
Boggs Center for Legislative Affairs, at Georgetown University Law School. In January 1991
she attended the dedication of the Lindy Claiborne
Boggs Room, a reading room for congresswomen
at the U.S. Capitol.
In 1997 Boggs was confirmed by the Senate
as U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, a position she
held until March 2001. Since that time she has
spoken on the topics of HEALTH CARE advocacy
and other health issues.
She has also spoken of her political and personal
experiences including raising two politically
active daughters. Her older daughter,
Barbara Boggs Sigmund, was the mayor of
Princeton, New Jersey, when she became terminally
ill with cancer. Boggs cited Sigmund’s illness
as one of the reasons she did not run for
reelection in 1990; Sigmund died later that year.
Boggs’s younger daughter, Corinne “Cokie”
Roberts, worked as a journalist and congressional
reporter for National Public Radio and
ABC News in the early 2000s.
FURTHER READINGS
Berry, Dawn Bradley. 1996. The 50 Most Influential Women
in American Law. Los Angeles: Contemporary Books.
Boggs, Lindy, with Katherine Hatch. 1994. Washington
through a Purple Veil: Memoirs of a Southern Woman.
New York: Harcourt Brace.
Catholic Health Association. Available online at (accessed June 1, 2003).
Ehrenhalt, Alan, ed. 1983. Politics in America. Washington,
D.C.: Congressional Quarterly.
Gilbert, Lynn, and Gaylen Moore. 1981. Particular Passions:
Talks with Women Who Have Shaped Our Times. New
York: Potter.
Keil, Sally Van Wagenen. 1979. Those Wonderful Women in
Their Flying Machines. New York: Rawson Wade.
O’Neill, Lois D., ed. 1979. The Women’s Book ofWorld Records
and Achievements. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press.
Stineman, Esther. 1980. American Political Women. Littleton,
Colo.: Libraries Unlimited.