See Also: Smith, Margaret Chase(encyclopedia)
Court, Margaret Smith(encyclopedia)
chase(3)(dictionary)
chase(5)(dictionary)
chase(6)(dictionary)
chase(4)(dictionary)
chase(7)(dictionary)
chase(2)(dictionary)
chase(1)(dictionary)
Chase(casino)

Smith, Margaret Chase (sh)




orig. Margaret Madeline Chase

born Dec. 14, 1897, Skowhegan, Maine, U.S.
died May 29, 1995, Skowhegan

U.S. politician.

She served as secretary to her husband, Clyde Smith, after he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican in 1936. When he suffered a heart attack in 1940, he urged voters to elect her to the office. She became the first woman to win election to both the House (1940-49) and the Senate (1949-73). Though a staunch anticommunist, she was the first Republican senator to condemn the tactics of Joseph McCarthy, delivering a memorable "Declaration of Conscience" speech on the Senate floor in 1950. Her opinion that Pres. John F. Kennedy should use nuclear weapons against the Soviet Union prompted Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to dub her "the devil in disguise of a woman." She retired from politics after her defeat in 1972. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1989.