Margaret Chase Smith

Margaret Madeline Chase Smith was an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, she served as a U.S Representative and a U.S. Senator from Maine. She was the first woman to serve in both houses of the United States Congress, and the first woman to represent Maine in either. A moderate Republican, she is perhaps best remembered for her 1950 speech, Declaration of Conscience, in which she criticized the tactics of McCarthyism.

Margaret Chase was born in Skowhegan in western Maine, to George Emery and Carrie Matilda Chase. She was the oldest of six children, two of whom did not survive to adulthood. Her father was of English ancestry, a descendant of immigrants to the United States in the 17th century her greatgreat grandfather commanded an artillery company during the War of 1812, and her grandfather served in the Union Army during the Civil War. Her mothers family was French Canadian, having immigrated from Quebec in the middle of the 19th century her grandfather, Lambert Morin, changed his name to John Murray to avoid antiFrench Canadian and antiCatholic prejudice. Her father was the town barber, and her mother worked as a waitress, store clerk, and shoe factory worker.

Source: Wikipedia