Elizabeth Kee


Maude Elizabeth Kee, known more generally as Elizabeth Kee, was a U.S. Democratic politician. She was the first woman elected to Congress from West Virginia. She attended Roanoke business college. Elizabeth dedicated herself to unemployment and veteran issues while in Congress. She was elected into congress in November 4, 1952.

Biography

She was born Maude Elizabeth Simpkins in Radford, Virginia. She married John Kee, and served as her husband's executive secretary from November 1932, when he was first elected to Congress, until his death in 1951. After her husband's death, she was elected as a Democrat in a special election to succeed her husband in the United States House of Representatives serving the Fifth Congressional District of West Virginia in the 82nd through the 88th U.S. Congress. She was elected to six more terms and served from July 17, 1951 to January 3, 1965. While serving in Congress, she served on the House Government Operations, Interior and Insular Affairs, and Veterans Affairs Committees, chairing the latter's Veterans' Hospitals Subcommittee. After struggling to win support for her economic redevelopment plans for her home district in West Virginia during the Eisenhower Administration, Congresswoman Kee threw her support behind President John F. Kennedy's campaign in 1960 and, through the Accelerated Public Works Act, funneled millions of dollars through an Area Redevelopment Administration to the state. She did not sign the 1956 Southern Manifesto, and voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960, as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but voted present on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. She did not run for re-election in 1964, and was succeeded in Congress by her son, James Kee. She died in Bluefield, West Virginia.