18 Facts About Margaret Heckler

Margaret Mary Heckler was an American politician and diplomat who represented in the United States House of Representatives from 1967 until 1983.

Margaret Heckler was born Margaret Mary O'Shaughnessy in Flushing, New York.

Margaret Heckler was the only woman in her law school class.

Margaret Heckler was an editor of the Annual Survey of Massachusetts Law.

From 1963 to 1967, Heckler was the first woman to serve on the Governor's council for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1964 and 1968, and was elected as a Republican from the 90th to the 97th Congresses.

In Congress, Margaret Heckler was generally regarded as a "Rockefeller Republican" who supported moderate to liberal policies favored by voters in her state.

Margaret Heckler voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

Margaret Heckler was an outspoken advocate for and cosponsor of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Margaret Heckler opposed abortion but then did not favor a constitutional amendment to ban it.

Later in life Margaret Heckler became a speaker and anti-abortion activist.

Margaret Heckler won the subsequent general election with just 51 percent of the votes but was easily re-elected thereafter.

When both ran against each other in 1982, Margaret Heckler began the race as a frontrunner.

Margaret Heckler lost the support of the National Organization for Women because she opposed federal funding for abortion.

Early on as secretary, Margaret Heckler commissioned the Secretarial Task Force to investigate a "sad and significant fact: there was a continuing disparity in the burden of death and illness experienced by Blacks and other minority Americans as compared with our nation's population as a whole," as she put it in her opening letter in The Secretary's Report on Black and Minority Health, known as the Margaret Heckler Report.

On January 21,1985, Margaret Heckler became the first woman to be named designated survivor.

On May 31,1987, Margaret Heckler became the first woman to deliver the commencement address in the history of the University of Scranton.

Margaret Heckler's papers are housed in the Burns Library at Boston College.

Margaret Heckler died at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Virginia, on August 6,2018, at the age of 87.