Edith Rogers (née Nourse; March 19, 1881 – September 10, 1960) was an American social welfare volunteer and Republican Party politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives from 1925 until her death in 1960. She was the first woman elected to Congress from New England, the longest-serving woman in Congress until 2012, and the longest-serving woman in the House of Representatives until 2018.
Rogers was born in Maine and educated by private tutors before attending Rogers Hall School and a finishing school in France. Her 1907 marriage to John Jacob Rogers drew her into politics, and her husband was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1912 as a member of the Republican Party. During World War I, the couple traveled to Europe as part of his duties on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and brief enlistment as a private in 1918. While in London and France, Edith Rogers volunteered with the American Red Cross and was first exposed to the suffering of wounded soldiers; she continued as a Red Cross volunteer upon return to the United States at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
In 1925, John Rogers died in office, and Edith was recruited by the Republican Party and American Legion to run for his vacant seat in a special election. She defeated former Massachusetts governor Eugene Foss in an electoral landslide, becoming the sixth woman elected to Congress. As a U.S. representative for the next 35 years, Rogers sponsored critical legislation in support of veterans during World War II, including the Serviceman's Readjustment Act and the bills creating the Women's Auxiliary Corps and Women's Army Corps. After the war, she chaired the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs for two crucial terms. In 1932, she successfully talked down a troubled Marine veteran, Marlin Kemmerer, who threatened House members with a pistol.
In addition to her work on veterans' affairs, Rogers opposed American involvement in World War II prior to the Pearl Harbor attack and early American involvement in the Vietnam War. She was critical of the persecution of Jews in Germany under Adolf Hitler and supported both the Red Scare and the American civil rights movement.
Edith Nourse was born on March 19, 1881, in Saco, Maine, to Franklin T. Nourse and Edith France Riversmith, both descendants of old New England families. Her father was the manager of a textile mill, and her mother was a volunteer for Christian and social causes. Until the age of fourteen, Edith was privately tutored. She then attended Rogers Hall School, a private boarding school for girls in Lowell, Massachusetts, and Madame Julien's, a finishing school in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.
Marriage and early social work
In 1907, Nourse married attorney John Jacob Rogers, and he established a practice in Lowell. In 1911, John started a career in politics, by working in city government and as Lowell school commissioner. In 1912, he was elected to represent Massachusetts's 5th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives as a member of the Republican Party.
During John's tenure in the House, World War I began. As a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, he traveled to the United Kingdom and France to observe the war firsthand and enlisted briefly as a private in an artillery training battalion from September 2 to November 29, 1918. While traveling with her husband, Edith volunteered with the YMCA and American Red Cross, where she witnessed the conditions faced by civilian women employees and volunteers at United States Army camps, who lacked housing, food, insurance, medical care, pensions, and compensation, in contrast with the professional benefits afforded to women in the British Army. After returning to the United States, she volunteered at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
After the war, John and Edith Rogers joined the American Legion and its women's auxiliary, respectively. In 1922, Warren G. Harding appointed her as the inspector of new United States veterans' hospitals, and she took a nominal one-dollar salary. She was reappointed to that position by Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. In 1924, she was elected as a presidential elector from Massachusetts, supporting Coolidge.
United States Representative (1925–60)
John Rogers died on March 28, 1925. She was recruited by the Republican Party and American Legion to run in the special election for his vacant seat, and she defeated former Massachusetts governor Eugene Foss with 72 percent of the vote. Her election made her the first woman elected to Congress from New England and the sixth elected overall.
Rogers was ultimately re-elected seventeen times, serving until her death in 1960. She continued to win strong majorities and was the longest serving woman in the history of Congress until surpassed by Barbara Mikulski in 2012.
She chaired the Committee on Veterans' Affairs from 1947 to 1948 and again from 1953 to 1954, during the 80th and 83rd Congresses. She was also the first woman to preside as Speaker pro tempore over the House of Representatives.
On December 13, 1932, Rogers, Melvin Maas, and Fiorello La Guardia subdued Marlin Kemmerer, a distraught Marine veteran who brandished a pistol in the House chamber and demanded a right to speak. Kemmerer was released a month later at the request of House members.
Rogers was one of the earliest members of Congress to speak out against the persecution of Jews in Germany under Adolf Hitler. After the failure of the Évian Conference, she co-sponsored the Wagner–Rogers Bill on February 14, 1939. The proposed legislation would have modified quotas under the Immigration Act of 1924 to permit 20,000 German Jewish refugees under the age of fourteen to settle in the United States with support from private organizations and individuals. However, the bill failed after opposition from nativist groups and neutrality from President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Rogers was regarded as capable by her male peers and became a model for younger Congresswomen. Her trademark was an orchid or a gardenia on her shoulder. She was also an active legislator and sponsored more than 1,200 bills, over half on veteran or military issues. She voted for a permanent nurse corps in the Department of Veteran's Affairs, and benefits for disabled veterans and veterans of the Korean War.
In 1937 she sponsored a bill to fund the maintenance of the neglected Congressional Cemetery, even though her husband was placed at rest in their hometown. She opposed child labor, and fought for "equal pay for equal work" and a 48-hour workweek for women, though she believed a woman's first priority was home and family. She supported local economic autonomy; on April 19, 1934, she read a petition against the expanded business regulations of the New Deal, and all 1,200 signatures, into the Congressional Record. Rogers voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960.
Rogers was an advocate for the textile and leather industries in Massachusetts. She acquired funding for flood control measures in the Merrimack River basin, helped Camp Devens become Fort Devens, Massachusetts in 1931, and was responsible for many other jobs and grants in the state.