12 Facts About Elizabeth Kee

Maude Elizabeth Kee, known generally as Elizabeth Kee, was a US Democratic politician.

Elizabeth Kee was the first woman elected to the US House of Representatives from West Virginia, serving from 1951 to 1965.

Maude Elizabeth Kee was born Maude Elizabeth Simpkins in Radford, Virginia, in 1895.

Elizabeth Kee was one of 11 children of John Jesse Wade Simpkins and Cora French Hall Simpkins.

Elizabeth Kee rejected her parents' strict Baptist faith, converting to Catholicism.

John Kee was first elected to Congress from the Fifth Congressional District in 1932, and Elizabeth Kee served as her husband's executive secretary until his death in 1951.

Elizabeth Kee won a special election to succeed him for the rest of the term, then went on to be elected to six full terms and served from July 17,1951, to January 3,1965, in the 82nd through the 88th US Congresses.

In Congress, Elizabeth Kee served on the House Government Operations, Interior and Insular Affairs, and Veterans Affairs committees, chairing the last's Veterans' Hospitals Subcommittee.

Elizabeth Kee 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 US Constitution, but voted present on the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Elizabeth Kee did not seek re-election in 1964, and was succeeded in Congress by her son, James Elizabeth Kee.

Elizabeth Kee retired to Bluefield, West Virginia, where she died in 1975.

The Elizabeth Kee Federal Building in Bluefield, WV is named in her honor.