23 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 1967, when she was first elected, Margaret Heckler was one of only 11 women in Congress.

Margaret Heckler supported moderate to liberal policies favored by voters in her state of Massachusetts.

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

In 1974, on the Banking and Currency Committee Margaret Heckler authored the Equal Credit Opportunity Act giving women credit in their own names for the first time in American history.

Margaret Heckler was an outspoken advocate for and co-sponsor of the Equal Rights Amendment.

At the Republican National Convention in 1980, Margaret Heckler urged then presidential nominee Ronald Reagan to put the first woman on the Supreme Court.

Margaret Heckler served on the Agriculture Committee and the Joint Economic Committee.

Margaret Heckler was the first woman Representative to Congress from Massachusetts elected in her own right.

Margaret Heckler won the subsequent general election with just 51 percent of the votes.

Margaret Heckler went on to be re-elected seven more times.

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

Early on as Secretary of HHS, 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.

Margaret Heckler went on to establish the Office of Minority Health.

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

Margaret Heckler was confirmed by the Senate in a voice vote in December 1985.

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.