Katharine St. George

Katharine Price Collier St. George (July 12, 1894 – May 2, 1983) was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from New York, and a cousin of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.[1]

Katharine St. George
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New York's 27th district
In office
January 3, 1963 – January 3, 1965
Preceded byRobert R. Barry
Succeeded byJohn G. Dow
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New York's 28th district
In office
January 3, 1953 – January 3, 1963
Preceded byRalph A. Gamble
Succeeded byJ. Ernest Wharton
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New York's 29th district
In office
January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1953
Preceded byAugustus W. Bennet
Succeeded byJ. Ernest Wharton
Personal details
Born(1894-07-12)July 12, 1894
Bridgnorth, England
DiedMay 2, 1983(1983-05-02) (aged 88)
Tuxedo Park, New York, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)
George Baker Bligh St. George
​
(
m. 1917; died 1957)
RelationsWarren Delano Robbins (half-brother)
Franklin D. Roosevelt (cousin)
Children1

Early life and family
Mrs. Price Collier, portrait bust, Lallie Charles Photo

St. George was born in Bridgnorth, England, in 1894, to American parents. Her family returned to the United States when she was two years of age. Her father, Hiram Price Collier, was a former Unitarian minister.[2] Her mother, Catherine Delano Collier, was the younger sister of Sara Delano Roosevelt, mother of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.[3] St. George's younger sister, Sara Collier, was named in their aunt's honor.[4] From her mother's first marriaeg to Charles Albert Robbins, she was younger half-sister of diplomat Warren Delano Robbins.[4]

Career

She was a member of the town board of Tuxedo Park, New York, from 1926 until 1949. She was chair of the Orange County Republican committee from 1942 until 1948. She was a delegate to the 1944 Republican National Convention. She was elected to Congress in 1946 and served from January 3, 1947, until January 3, 1965. (Her opponent in the 1956 election was Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Bill Mauldin.) She narrowly lost a re-election bid in 1964 against liberal Democrat John G. Dow.

A proponent of pay equity, St. George was a supporter of the Equal Pay Act of 1963.[5] In 1962, St. George proposed that legislation be passed to ensure that women received equal pay for equal work.[6] Her proposals were drafted into a bill and introduced by Congresswoman Edith Green, an Oregon Democrat.[7] During a debate regarding the bill, St. George stated that opposing the bill was comparable to "being against motherhood".[8]

The bill met with stiff opposition from the United States Chamber of Commerce, but received support from the Kennedy Administration, the American Association of Women, the National Consumers League, the ACLU, and the AFL-CIO.[9]

The bill passed in both the House and the Senate, but it passed in different forms, and there was no final bill. Undaunted, in 1963, Green re-introduced the bill, and this time it was successfully signed into law.[10]

St. George voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957,[11] 1960,[12] and 1964,[13] as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.[14]

Personal life

Katharine married George Baker Bligh St. George, third son of the second Baronet St. George (see St George Baronets). They were the parents of one daughter:[15]

  • Priscilla St. George, who married first to Angier Biddle Duke (1915–1995), an American diplomat, and an heir to the Duke tobacco empire, from 1936[16] to 1940; and second to State Senator Allan A. Ryan, Jr. (1903–1981) from 1941[17] to 1950.[18]

St. George and her family resided briefly at 2144 Wyoming Avenue in Washington D.C.[19] before relocating to Tuxedo Park, New York, in June 1919, where she much later died at the age of eighty-eight, in 1983.

See also

References
  1. "Roosevelt Genealogy," Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. (Accessed February 21, 2011.) http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/resources/genealogy.html Archived 2014-05-29 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "Roosevelt Genealogy," Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. (Accessed February 21, 2011.) http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/resources/genealogy.html Archived 2014-05-29 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Roosevelt Genealogy," Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. (Accessed February 21, 2011.) http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/resources/genealogy.html Archived 2014-05-29 at the Wayback Machine
  4. "Roosevelt Genealogy," Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. (Accessed February 21, 2011.) http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/resources/genealogy.html Archived 2014-05-29 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Suzanne O'Dea Schenken. Suzanne O'Dea. From suffrage to the Senate: an encyclopedia of American women in politics, Volume 2. p. 236 New York: ABC-Clio, 1999
  6. Suzanne O'Dea Schenken. Suzanne O'Dea. From suffrage to the Senate: an encyclopedia of American women in politics, Volume 2. p. 236 New York: ABC-Clio, 1999
  7. Suzanne O'Dea Schenken. Suzanne O'Dea. From suffrage to the Senate: an encyclopedia of American women in politics, Volume 2. p. 236 New York: ABC-Clio, 1999
  8. Suzanne O'Dea Schenken. Suzanne O'Dea. From suffrage to the Senate: an encyclopedia of American women in politics, Volume 2. p. 236 New York: ABC-Clio, 1999
  9. Suzanne O'Dea Schenken. Suzanne O'Dea. From suffrage to the Senate: an encyclopedia of American women in politics, Volume 2. p. 236 New York: ABC-Clio, 1999
  10. Suzanne O'Dea Schenken. Suzanne O'Dea. From suffrage to the Senate: an encyclopedia of American women in politics, Volume 2. p. 236 New York: ABC-Clio, 1999
  11. "HR 6127. CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1957". GovTrack.us.
  12. "HR 8601. PASSAGE".
  13. "H.R. 7152. PASSAGE".
  14. "S.J. RES. 29. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO BAN THE USE OF POLL TAX AS A REQUIREMENT FOR VOTING IN FEDERAL ELECTIONS". GovTrack.us.
  15. Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
  16. "Milestone, Nov. 15, 1937." TIME magazine, November 15, 1937 issue. Accessed February 21, 2011. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758366,00.html
  17. ALLAN A. RYAN WEDS MRS. ST. GEORGE DUKE in the New York Times on August 6, 1941 (subscription required)
  18. MRS. RYAN WINS DIVORCE in the New York Times on December 14, 1950 (subscription required)
  19. Brooklyn Blue Book and Long Island Society Register. Brooklyn Life Publishing Company. 1919. p. 2144. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by
Augustus W. Bennet		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New York's 29th congressional district
1947–1953		 Succeeded by
J. Ernest Wharton
Preceded by
Ralph A. Gamble		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New York's 28th congressional district
1953–1963		 Succeeded by
J. Ernest Wharton
Preceded by
Robert R. Barry		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New York's 27th congressional district
1963–1965		 Succeeded by
John G. Dow
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