Edith Nourse Rogers Biography

Edith Nourse Rogers

Edith Nourse married John J. Rogers, a successful lawyer in Lowell, Massachusetts. In 1912 her husband was elected to Congress and Rogers became involved in volunteer work in Washington, D.C., supporting the Red Cross, YMCA, and veterans' hospitals. In 1917, she served abroad with the Women's Overseas League. President Warren Harding named her his personal representative to visit military and veterans' hospitals around the country. Presidents Coolidge and Hoover reappointed her. In 1925 her husband died and she was elected to fill his unexpired term. The first Congresswoman from New England, a Republican like her husband, Rogers represented the Fifth District of Massachusetts for 35 years. Half of the 1,200 bills she introduced during her career, concerned veterans or military affairs. She sponsored legislation to create what later became the Women's Army Corps, and was an author of the 1944 G.I. Bill of Rights, providing educational and financial benefits for veterans. She also served on the post office, civil service, and foreign affairs committees. Rogers died in 1960, during her nineteenth Congressional campaign.