Smith, Margaret Chase (1897-1995), was the first woman to be elected to both houses of the United States Congress. Her husband was a Republican congressman from Maine. When he died in 1940, Mrs. Smith replaced him in the U.S. House of Representatives. She served four full two-year terms. She was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1948 and was reelected three times. She served in the Senate from 1949 to 1973. In 1950, she became one of the first senators to oppose tactics used by Wisconsin Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. In 1964, Smith campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination, the first woman ever to do so for a major party. She was born Margaret Madeline Chase on Dec. 14, 1897, in Skowhegan, Maine. She died there on May 29, 1995.
