Virginia Shehee

Last updated
Virginia Shehee
Member of the Louisiana Senate
from the 38th district
In office
1976–1980
Personal details
Born
Virginia Ruth Kilpatrick

(1923-07-12)July 12, 1923
Houston, Texas, U.S.
DiedJuly 6, 2015(2015-07-06) (aged 91)
Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S.
Political party Democratic
SpouseWilliam Payton Shehee Jr.
Children4
Alma mater Centenary College of Louisiana

Virginia Ruth Kilpatrick Shehee (1923-2015) was an American businesswoman and politician from Louisiana. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the first woman elected to the Louisiana State Senate.

Contents

Personal life

Shehee was born on July 12, 1923, in Houston, Texas to Lonnie Benjamin Kilpatrick and Nell Peters. [1] She was descended from one of the Old Three Hundred families and had a sister, Ann Shane Kilpatrick. [1]

As a child, her family moved to Shreveport, Louisiana where he parents established two companies, the Kilpatrick Life Insurance Company and the Rose-Neath Funeral Home. [1] While a student at C.E. Byrd High School, Shehee worked for her father at the life insurance agency. [1] She also worked as a secretary for Jimmie Davis, the future Governor of Louisiana, with whom she became life-long friends. [1] After high school, she attended one year at Stephens College, but her father bought her a Ford Roadster in exchange for returning home. [1] She finished her degree at Shreveport's Centenary College of Louisiana in 1943. [1] She majored in English and was a member of Zeta Tau Alpha. [1] Shehee then earned a master's degree in social work from Southern Methodist University. [1]

With her husband, John Andrew Guy, she had three children. [1] The family first lived in Washington DC but then moved to Shreveport. [1] She later married William Peyton Shehee, Jr. and had a daughter with him. [1] She had several pets and loved to read. [1]

Shehee died on July 6, 2015, at University Health Hospital in Shreveport after an illness. [2] Her funeral was held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Shreveport. [1]

Career

After World War II, Shehee visited friends in Germany and was presented an opportunity to work for the American Red Cross. [1] While working in Germany, she participated in the Berlin Airlift. [1] After returning to Shreveport, Shehee went back to work in the family insurance agency and funeral home. [1] [3] While married to William Shehee, the couple built the Kilpatrick Life Insurance Company into the state's largest life insurance company. [1] It grew to 10 offices in Texas and Louisiana by the time of her retirement. [1]

Following her mother's unexpected death in a 1971 plane crash, Shehee took control of both companies. [1] Under her leadership, the funeral home business grew to 12 homes and three cemeteries. [1] In this role, she served as chairman of the Life Insurers Conference, the Louisiana Insurers' Conference, and the Louisiana Life Insurance Guarantee Association, as well as on the board of the American Council of Life Insurance. [1]

Political career

Elected in 1975 by just 23 votes over incumbent C. Kay Carter, Shehee became the first woman elected to the Louisiana State Senate. [4] A member of the Democratic Party, [5] she served the 38th District (Caddo and DeSoto Parishes) from 1976 to 1980. [1] [6] [7] She was a member of the Judicial Council of the Louisiana Supreme Court. [1]

She sponsored legislation that made You Are My Sunshine the official state song. [1] The song was written by her friend, Governor Jimmie Davis. [1]

Civic life

Shehee served as a trustee at her alma mater, Centenary College, and helped to establish the Kilpatrick Auditorium and Shehee Stadium there. [1] She helped to save the Strand Theatre from demolition and raised funds to restore it. [1] As a member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, she was elected the first female senior warden. [1] She was also elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. [1]

A staunch supporter of education, she served on the higher education transition team for Governors Buddy Roemer and Mike Foster. [1] She also co-chaired Governor Bobby Jindal's transition committee on ethics and chaired the Southfield School Book Fair. [1]

She also served on a number of boards, including

Honors

The Kilpatrick Life Insurance Company Endowed Chair for Insurance and Financial Service at Louisiana State University Shreveport was established in her honor by those in the state's insurance industry. [1] In addition to becoming one of the first female members of the Rotary Club of Shreveport, she was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship by the club. [1] The Virginia Shehee Service Award was established in her name by the Southern Hills Business Association. [1]

Centenary College and Northwestern State University both awarded her honorary doctorates. [1] She was named a "Sweatheart for life" by the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. [1] Louisiana State University Shreveport declared her to be a Distinguished Business Executive on Campus. [1] The Biomedical Research Institute at the LSU Health Sciences Center Shreveport was named for Shehee. [1]

She was inducted into the Centenary College of Louisiana Alumni Hall of Fame, the C.E. Byrd High School Hall of Fame, [lower-alpha 1] the Louisiana State University Shreveport's Women in Government Hall of Fame, the North Louisiana Business Hall of Fame as a business laureate, and the Louisiana Political Hall of Fame. [1]

Pope John Paul II awarded her the Benemerenti Medal. [1] Other awards include the Shreveport Medical Society award for Outstanding Contribution to the Advancement of Medicine, the Clyde E. Fant Memorial Award for Community Service, the Liberty Bell Award from Shreveport Bar Association, the Arthritis Foundation Award, the Patron of Architecture from Louisiana Architecture Foundation the "Pilot of the Year" of LSUS, and the Philanthropy, Volunteerism, and Community Leadership Award from Louisiana Association of Non-Profit Organizations. [1] Shehee was the first woman to be named "Mr. Shreveport" by the Optimist Club. [1] She received the Distinguished Sales Award from Sales & Marketing Executives of Shreveport/Bossier, the Rotary Club of Shreveport's Service Above Self Award. [1]

The March of Dimes named her the Citizen of the Year, and she also won the Samaritan Counseling Center's Samaritan Award, and the Shreveport Chamber of Commerce's Business Leader of the Year award, where she was the first female recipient. [1] The Volunteers of America gave her the Light House Award, Gardens of the American Rose Society bestowed their Mary Johnston Award for Outstanding Service upon her, and Louisiana Public Broadcasting named her a Louisiana Legend. [1]

Notes

  1. ↑ She was one of the first five members. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jimmie Davis</span> American singer, songwriter, and 47th Governor of Louisiana

James Houston Davis was an American singer, songwriter, and politician. After achieving fame for releasing both sacred and popular songs, Davis served as governor of Louisiana from 1944 to 1948 and again from 1960 to 1964. As Governor, he was an opponent of efforts to desegregate Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Bennett Johnston</span> American politician (born 1932)

John Bennett Johnston Jr. is a retired American attorney, politician, and later lobbyist. A member of the Democratic Party, Johnston represented Louisiana in the U.S. Senate from 1972 to 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centenary College of Louisiana</span> Private college in Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S.

Centenary College of Louisiana is a private liberal arts college in Shreveport, Louisiana. The college is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Founded in 1825, it is the oldest chartered liberal arts college west of the Mississippi River and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).

"You Are My Sunshine" is a standard of American old-time country music and one of the official state songs of Louisiana. Its original writer is disputed. According to the performance rights organisation BMI, by the year 2000 the song had been recorded by over 350 artists and translated into 30 languages.

Wyatt Merle Kilgore was an American singer, songwriter, and manager. Born in Chickasha, Oklahoma, he was raised in Shreveport, Louisiana. At the time of his death, he was the personal manager of Hank Williams Jr.

Sue Gunter was an American women's college basketball coach. She is best known as the head coach of the Louisiana State University (LSU) Lady Tigers basketball team. Gunter was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. E. Byrd High School</span> American public high school

C. E. Byrd, a Blue Ribbon School, is a high school in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States. In continuous operation since its establishment in 1925, C. E. Byrd is also the eighth-largest high school in the United States of America as of February 2019. Byrd students come from its neighborhood or throughout the entire school district through its selective math/science magnet program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Algur H. Meadows</span> American oilman, art collector and philanthropist

Algur Hurtle Meadows was an American oil tycoon, art collector, and benefactor of Southern Methodist University and other institutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KEEL</span> Radio station in Louisiana, United States

KEEL is an American radio station broadcasting a News Talk Information format. Licensed to Shreveport, Louisiana, United States, the station serves the Shreveport area. The station is currently owned by Townsquare Media and features programming from Compass Media Networks, Premiere Networks, Radio America, and Westwood One, and airs Louisiana Tech games. Fox News updates are carried at the top of every hour. Its studios are shared with its other five sister stations in West Shreveport, and the transmitter is in Dixie.

Gilda Z. Jacobs was a Democratic member of the Michigan Senate, representing the 14th district from 2003 through 2010. The mostly suburban district is in southeastern Oakland County, and includes the cities of Farmington Hills, Huntington Woods, Southfield, and Oak Park. Jacobs was a member of the Michigan House of Representatives from 1999 to 2002.

Juanita Baranco is an American corporate executive. She has been noted for breaking "race and gender barriers" in Georgia.

Leslie Rosenthal Jacobs is an education reform advocate, business executive, and philanthropist. Born in New Orleans and a graduate of Cornell University, she built her family's small, independent insurance agency into one of the largest in the South, before merging the Rosenthal Agency with Hibernia National Bank. While President of Rosenthal Agency, Jacobs worked with the business community and the legislature to create the Louisiana Workers Compensation Corporation (LWCC) and served on its inaugural board of directors. The LWCC solved a state workers compensation crisis and today Louisiana has competitive and stable workers compensation rates. She went on to become a co-founder of Strategic Comp, a workers compensation insurance company that sold to Great American in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rose Van Thyn</span>

Rozette Lopes-Dias Van Thyn, known as Rose Van Thyn, was a Holocaust survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II in Poland. She became a naturalized United States citizen residing in Shreveport, Louisiana. In addition to raising a family and working as a professional seamstress, she was active for forty years as a Holocaust educator. She spoke to thousands of children in Shreveport and as an academic fellow to college students about her experiences during the Holocaust.

The North Louisiana Historical Association was organized in 1952 to in its own words "encourage an appreciation and understanding of the history of North Louisiana."

Arthur C. Morgan (1904–1994) was an American sculptor, mostly of Louisiana political and business figures. Morgan's work can be seen across his home state of Louisiana and in the Capitol Visitor Center, Washington, DC. He and his wife Gladys B. Morgan ran an art school, the Southwestern Institute of Arts, in their Shreveport home for over forty years.

Lonnie Odell Aulds was a businessman from Shreveport, Louisiana, who was a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Shreveport in Caddo Parish in northwestern Louisiana. He served a single term from 1968 until 1972.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aaron Selber Jr.</span> American businessman

Aaron Rosenbaum Selber Jr. was an American businessman, the last president of the former Selber Bros. department store chain, and a philanthropist from Shreveport, the largest city in the northern portion of the U.S. state of Louisiana.

Doris Lindsey Holland Rhodes was the first woman ever to serve as a member of the Louisiana State Legislature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruffin G. Pleasant</span> American politician (1871–1937)

Ruffin Golson Pleasant was the 36th Governor of Louisiana, from 1916 to 1920, who is remembered for having mobilized his state for World War I. Prior to his governorship, Pleasant was the Louisiana attorney general from 1912 to 1916, and the city attorney of Shreveport from 1902 to 1908.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean M. Doerge</span> American politician and educator

Jean McGlothlin Doerge is director of the Germantown Colony and Museum in Webster Parish, Louisiana, and a former Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives who represented District 10 from 1998 to 2012. From 2001 to 2006, she served as the vice chair of the House's Commerce Committee; in 2007, she was appointed to the Louisiana House Appropriations Committee, and from 2008 to 2012, she served as the vice chair of the Retirement Committee.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 "Virginia Ruth Kilpatrick Shehee". The Advocate. July 9, 2015. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
  2. ↑ "Shreveport philanthropist Virginia Shehee dies". KSLA. July 11, 2015. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
  3. ↑ Jovic, Jacque (March 15, 2019). "Celebrating Women: Virginia Shehee". ArkLaTexHomepage.com.
  4. ↑ Prine, John Andrew (July 6, 2015). "Civic leader Virginia Shehee dies at 91". Shreveport Times. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
  5. ↑ Hill, John (June 6, 2007). "Lobbying for I-49 North". Shreveport Times. p. 3. Retrieved November 7, 2020– via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ "Virginia Ruth Kilpatrick Shehee". Legacy.com. July 12, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Longtime Northwest Louisiana Business and Community Leader, Virginia Shehee Dies at 91". Center Broadcasting Company. Retrieved July 17, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.