Irene Thresher (July 6, 1900-August 25, 1981) was a member of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts.
Irene Thresher (July 6, 1900-August 25, 1981) was a member of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts.
Irene Kattwinkell was born in Cologne, Germany and studied at Vassar College. [1] [2] She was awarded an honorary doctorate from Emerson College. [1] After college, she lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts and then Newton, Massachusetts. After leaving the legislature, she moved to Cocoa Beach, Florida and then Winter Park, Florida. [1] She was married to B. Alden Thresher, with whom she had a son, Colby, and two daughters, Sonia and Rosemary. [1] Before entering the General Court, she was a housewife. [2]
From 1941 to 1950, Thresher was a member of the Newton School Committee. [2]
Thresher served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives as a Republican from 1951 to 1961. [1] In addition to serving on the education and public welfare committees, she was also the first woman to serve on the ways and means committee. [1] After her initial election in 1950, she was elected president of the freshman class, the first woman to hold that position. [1] Her priorities as a legislator included education and the elderly. [1]
Anna Louise Day Hicks was an American politician and lawyer from Boston, Massachusetts, best known for her staunch opposition to desegregation in Boston public schools, and especially to court-ordered busing, in the 1960s and 1970s. A longtime member of Boston's school board and city council, she served one term in the United States House of Representatives, succeeding Speaker of the House John W. McCormack.
The Massachusetts General Court, formally the General Court of Massachusetts, is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts located in the state capital of Boston. The name "General Court" is a holdover from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, when the colonial assembly, in addition to making laws, sat as a judicial court of appeals. Before the adoption of the state constitution in 1780, it was called the Great and General Court, but the official title was shortened by John Adams, author of the state constitution. It is a bicameral body. The upper house is the Massachusetts Senate which is composed of 40 members. The lower body, the Massachusetts House of Representatives, has 160 members; until 1978, the state house had 240 members. It meets in the Massachusetts State House on Beacon Hill in Boston.
Edward Joseph King was an American politician who served as the 66th Governor of Massachusetts from 1979 to 1983. A member of the Democratic Party until 1985, he then became a member of the Republican Party. Elected in the 1978 Massachusetts gubernatorial election, he lost the Democratic primary of the 1982 election to his predecessor Michael Dukakis.
John Foster Furcolo was an American lawyer, writer, and Democratic Party politician from Massachusetts. He was the state's 60th governor, and also represented the state as a member of the United States House of Representatives. He was the first Italian-American governor of the state, and an active promoter of community colleges.
Shannon Patricia Elizabeth O'Brien is an American politician and attorney who served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1987 through 1993, in the Massachusetts Senate from 1993 through 1995, and was the Massachusetts state treasurer from 1999 through 2003. In that last position she became the first woman to be elected in Massachusetts to statewide office by her own accord. She was the Democratic Party nominee in the 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial election, but lost in the general election to Mitt Romney.
Alice K. Wolf was an Austrian-born American politician who served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1996 to 2013, representing the 25th Middlesex District.
Patricia Deats Jehlen is a former teacher and current Massachusetts State Senator of the Democratic Party. She represents the Second Middlesex District. That includes the cities of Cambridge, Ward 7 Precinct 1, Ward 8 Precinct 1, Ward 10, Medford and Somerville, and the town of Winchester, precincts 4 to 7, inclusive, in the County of Middlesex. She has served the Massachusetts State Senate since 2005. She also served the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1991 to 2003. She resides in Somerville, MA.
Elizabeth A. "Liz" Malia is an American politician from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A Democrat, she served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from March 1998 to January 2023. She represented the Eleventh Suffolk district, which includes parts of the Boston neighborhoods of Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, Roxbury and Dorchester.
Barbara Warne Newell is an economist, career professor, and higher education administrator. Notably, she served as the tenth President of Wellesley College from 1972 to 1980 and was the first female chancellor of the State University System of Florida from 1981 to 1985.
Martha Ware was an American district court judge in Plymouth County, Massachusetts.
Ruth B. Balser is an American state legislator serving in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. She is a Newton resident and a member of the Democratic Party.
Denise C. Garlick is an American state legislator representing the 13th Norfolk District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
Mary L. Fonseca (1915–2005) was a Massachusetts state senator who represented the Second Bristol District from 1953 to 1984. As Assistant Majority Leader, she was the first woman to hold a leadership post in the Massachusetts Senate.
Elizabeth Miranda is a Cape Verdean-American community organizer and politician. She is a state senator representing the Massachusetts Senate's 2nd Suffolk district after winning a five-way Democratic Primary Election, and advancing to an uncontested race in the 2022 Massachusetts general election. Prior to that, since January 2019, Miranda had served as the Democratic Massachusetts State Representative for the Fifth Suffolk district. Her district comprises parts of the Dorchester and Roxbury neighborhoods of Boston. She is a member of the Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus.
Massachusetts House of Representatives' 5th Middlesex district in the United States is one of 160 legislative districts included in the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court. It covers parts of Middlesex County and Norfolk County. Democrat David Linsky of Natick has represented the district since 1999. Candidates running for this district seat in the 2020 Massachusetts general election include Jaymin Patel.
The 157th Massachusetts General Court, consisting of the Massachusetts Senate and the Massachusetts House of Representatives, met in 1951 and 1952 during the governorship of Paul A. Dever. Richard I. Furbush served as president of the Senate and Tip O'Neill served as speaker of the House.
Barbara A. Hildt is an American politician who represented the 1st Essex District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1983 to 1993.
Florence W. (Seaver) Slocomb was one of the first three women in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to be elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the first woman from Worcester to win a state legislative seat, representing that district from 1926 to 1928. A longtime suffragist, she was also active in the women's club movement, serving as president of the Ward 8 Republican Woman's Club, the Worcester Women's Club, and the Worcester Smith College Club.
Mary B. Newman was an American politician and state government official who was elected to her first term in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1953. A moderate Republican, she represented the 2nd Middlesex District from 1953 to 1954 and, again, from 1957 to 1970. Appointed to the Massachusetts Parole Board in 1955 after her initial legislative term ended, she held that parole board post until 1957 when she returned to the Massachusetts House. During the early part of that second term, she served on the House's Labor and Industries and Water Supply committees.
Barbara E. Gray was an American Democratic politician from Framingham, Massachusetts. She represented the 39th Middlesex district from 1973 to 1974, the 56th Middlesex district from 1975 to 1978, and the 6th Middlesex district from 1979 to 1996 in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. She was first elected as a Republican, but switched parties in October 1990.