If you live in or near St. Louis, you may have walked or driven on a street named in her honor, but you might not know who she was.\u00a0 Leonor K. Sullivan <\/a>was the first woman from Missouri elected to Congress.\u00a0 The street named in her honor runs at the foot of the Gateway Arch, along the Mississippi River. Once known as Wharf Street, and occasionally underwater,\u00a0 it has been called Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard for years.<\/p>\n

<\/a>We recently wrote of Senator Margaret Chase Smith<\/a> of Maine, the first woman to officially have her name placed in nomination for president.\u00a0 She first served in the House of Representatives; then the Senate.\u00a0 As was the case with so many of the first women in Congress, she was elected to her late husband\u2019s seat following his death.\u00a0 The situation was similar for Leonor Sullivan.\u00a0 Her husband, John–a Democrat, like Leonor–had\u00a0 an odd tenure representing Missouri\u2019s Third district. The trajectory of his elections had a pogo-stick quality.\u00a0 He was elected in 1940, defeated in 1942, elected again 1944, defeated again in 1946, made another comeback in 1948 and finally won a consecutive term in 1950, only to die in January of the following year.<\/p>\n

Leonor had served as his administrative aide during his off-and-on tenures in Congress.\u00a0 She was clearly familiar with the territory.\u00a0 After Congressman Sullivan died, the governor appointed another gentleman to complete the term.\u00a0 Mrs. Sullivan ran for the seat in 1952. She won and served through 1977, choosing not to run for re-election in 1978.<\/p>\n

Her obituary, reported in the September 2, 1988 New York Times<\/span> described her accomplishments:<\/p>\n

In her years in Congress, Mrs. Sullivan became a prominent environmentalist and consumer advocate. She pressed for preservation of environmental resources and improved employment conditions, as well as consumer protection laws for foods, drugs and cosmetics. In 1954, she was an author of legislation creating the food-stamp program.<\/p>\n

While progressive in the areas cited by the Times, her record is marred by her having been the only woman in Congress during the early 1970s to vote against the Equal Rights Amendment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>The Third district has remained interesting. Leonor Sullivan was succeeded by a St. Louis alderman who was a member of the \u201cyoung Turk\u201d faction advocating reform.\u00a0 He was the son of a milkman. You know the rest: His name was Dick Gephardt.\u00a0 He served as both the Majority and Minority Leader of the House, but not as Speaker of the House.\u00a0 After a failed presidential bid in 2004, he retired to seek a non-political fortune, but theThird district remained interesting, as Russ Carnahan, whose father had been Missouri governor, and whose mother, Jean, had been a senator from Missouri, won a primary with eleven contestants, one of whom was Jeff Smith (Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Leonor Sullivan was successful enough to overcome the unpredictability of election results experienced by her husband.\u00a0 Since she was first elected in 1952, Democrats have won every November election for the seat.\u00a0 That\u2019s thirty consecutive races.<\/p>\n

Despite her hard-to-fathom opposition to the E.R.A., she distinguished herself in Congress.\u00a0 Her name is now back in play as the City to River<\/a> movement in St. Louis is capturing the city\u2019s imagination<\/a> to link downtown with the riverfront, and Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard.<\/p>\n

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