Lois Marie DeBerry was an American politician who was a member of Tennessee House of Representatives and former Speaker Pro Tempore of the Tennessee House.
18 Facts About Lois DeBerry
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Lois DeBerry was elected to represent the 91st district, part of Shelby County, as a Democrat.
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Lois DeBerry was first elected to the Tennessee General Assembly in 1972 and was at the time of her death the longest serving member of the House.
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Lois DeBerry was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on May 5,1945, the second of the five children of Samuel DeBerry and the former Mary Page.
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Lois DeBerry grew up in the Bunker Hill neighborhood of South Memphis and graduated from Hamilton High School.
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Lois DeBerry became a candidate for public office in 1972 after becoming disillusioned by her experiences working as a counselor in a federally funded project, where she was one of the few African Americans working with a client population that was almost entirely African American.
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Lois DeBerry was one of five candidates for the state House of Representatives in the 91st District, which had been newly defined by redistricting after the 1970 census.
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Lois DeBerry had represented the 91st district from 1973 until her death.
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Lois DeBerry was President Emeritus of National Black Caucus of State Legislators.
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Lois DeBerry was the first African-American woman elected to serve in the Tennessee House of Representatives from the city of Memphis, the first chairwoman of the Shelby County Delegation, and the first African-American woman to be elected speaker pro tempore of the House of Representatives.
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Lois DeBerry married Charles Traughber, chairman of the Tennessee state parole board, in 1981.
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Lois DeBerry died after a nearly five-year bout with pancreatic cancer on July 28,2013, at a hospital in Memphis.
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Lois DeBerry was a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.
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Lois DeBerry co-sponsored a bill in May 2005 that would have required parents to volunteer in schools for at least 12 hours per year.
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Lois DeBerry voted in April 2004 for women to be required to wait 24 hours and receive counseling before having an abortion.
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Lois DeBerry voted against a bill in March 2004 that would have banned civil unions and domestic partnerships in Tennessee.
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Lois DeBerry was a close friend of former Vice President Al Gore for at least 25 years, and she put in his nomination for president at the Democratic National Convention.
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Lois DeBerry defended the decision, saying she did nothing wrong, and that she thought the money was a birthday present.