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Lindy Boggs: Striking Role Model
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# : |
19776 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
3 / 1991 |
2,488 Words |
| Author
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Jeanne Viner Bell
Jeanne Viner Bell is president of the American Newswomen's
Foundation. |
When Lindy Boggs was a student at Tulane University, she went one evening to a strictly chaperoned party at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. A young man asked to be introduced and invited her to dance. Within five minutes he said, "I'm going to marry you someday." As soon as he left her side, she turned to a friend and asked, "Who was that crazy fellow?" She learned that his name was Hale Boggs.
That was in 1931. Lindy was a freshman and Hale was editor of the Hullabaloo, the campus newspaper. She soon became women's editor for the paper, the highest post open to a woman at that time. She recalls that she was awed by Hale's intellect and his understanding of government. But she saw other young men too. In fact, one of her favorite beaux was a medical student. She began finding an apple on her desk each day. Hale Boggs told her that he put it there to "keep the doctor away."
After graduation, Lindy taught history and English at a high school while Hale worked toward his law degree. His first political campaign was unsuccessful: He failed in a bid to become president of the law school. But Hale and Lindy were both active in local politics, working against corruption and for improvements in the government in Louisiana.
There were married in 1938. Two years later, Hale was elected to the U.S. Congress; he was one of the youngest members in the history of the House. Lindy found herself in a variety of roles as part of official Washington. Her life as a wife and mother was a source of pleasure--her three children still describe her as a "terrific all-around mother"--but she was also Hale's partner in his career. She was active in his campaigns and in the politics of their district in New Orleans, and she often worked in Hale's congressional office.
As a congressional wife, Lindy also served as president of the Women's National Democratic Club, the Democratic Wives' Forum, and the Congressional Club. She chaired inaugural committees for presidents Kennedy and Johnson.
She shared Hale's ideals and his dreams of better housing for all Americans, free international trade, and peace and prosperity for future generations. The Boggses believed strongly in voting rights for every American. In the 1960s, civil rights for minorities was not a popular position in the Deep South. Lindy once received a call during a trip to France to tell her that a cross had been burned in the yard of their home in New Orleans. But the Boggses persisted and
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