Life
Boggs was born in Brunswick Plantation, near New Roads in Pointe Coupee Parish. She attended Newcomb College at Tulane University in New Orleans. She was a second cousin of the late New Orleans Mayor and Ambassador to the Organization of American States, DeLesseps Story "Chep" Morrison, Sr., who for a time was also her husband's law partner.
Boggs first took office in 1973, after the presumed death of her husband from a plane crash. The first bill that the House passed that year, House Resolution 1, officially recognized Hale Boggs's death, opening the door for a special election, which Lindy Boggs won, running as a Democrat in the New Orleans-based 2nd District.
She was elected to a full term in 1974 with 82 percent of the vote and was reelected seven times thereafter, leaving office in January 1991. In 1980, she faced the Republican Rob Couhig, an attorney-businessman who raised some $200,000 for the race, a large amount at that time for a challenger in a difficult district. Lindy Boggs still prevailed, 45,091 votes (63.8 percent) to Couhig's 25,512 (36.2 percent). Otherwise, Boggs polled more than 80 percent in her contested races. In her four final campaigns, she ran without opposition even though the district had been redrawn with an African American majority following the 1980 United States Census. In 1994, Boggs was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield, one year after her late husband had been among the original thirteen inductees.
In 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed her official U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, a position she held until 2001.
In 2005, Boggs's home on Bourbon Street in New Orleans' French Quarter suffered moderate wind damage from Hurricane Katrina. In 2006, she was awarded the Congressional Distinguished Service Award for her time in the House of Representatives.
Boggs is a member of Sigma Gamma Rho, one of the four traditionally African-American sororities in the United States.
Tulane's Boggs Center for Energy and Biotechnology building is named in honor of her.
Read more about this topic: Lindy Boggs
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