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From Suffrage to the Senate America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues

Rogers, Edith Frances Nourse (1881-1960)

Republican Edith Rogers of Massachusetts served in the U.S. House of Representatives from June 30, 1925 to September 10, 1960. Rogers began her public life through her husband John Rogers, who entered Congress in 1913. When he went to Britain and France on a congressional mission during World War I, Edith Rogers accompanied him. In England, Edith Rogers volunteered for the Young Men’s Christian Association, and in Europe she went to battle zones as a member of a Red Cross party, visiting base and field hospitals. When she returned to the United States, she worked seven days a week at Walter Reed Hospital. In 1922, President Warren G. Harding appointed her a dollar-a-year veterans’ hospital inspector, an appointment renewed by Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.

In March 1925, John Rogers died in office following an operation. At the requests of veterans, family members, and Republican leaders, Edith Rogers became a candidate to fill the vacancy. Congresswoman Rogers warned Americans about the threat that Hitler posed, argued for military preparedness, and supported U.S. entry into World War II. In 1942, she sponsored the legislation that created the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAACs), which eventually had 150,000 members, the legal limit. Later, the word auxiliary was dropped, and the acronym became WAC.

Throughout her political career, Rogers served on the Veterans Affairs Committee, chairing it in 1947. She once said that helping veterans was her “greatest interest in life.” She co-sponsored the GI Bill of Rights and sponsored the Korean Veterans Benefits bill, as well as passed measures to develop prosthetic appliances and appropriating funds for automobiles for amputees. She was affectionately called the “mother of veterans.”

Rogers also supported legislation to protect her district’s textile and shoe manufacturing and food processing industries. She advocated protective tariffs for cotton mill owners and benefits for laborers, again reflecting issues important to her district. Rogers died two days before the 1960 Massachusetts primary, in which she was a candidate for a 19th term.

Born in Saco, Maine, Edith Rogers attended a finishing school near Paris and traveled in Europe before marrying John Jacob Rogers in 1907.

See also: Congress, Women in; Equal Rights Amendment

References: Kaptur, Women of Congress: A Twentieth-Century Odyssey (1996).

Citation Types

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MLA 9th
"Rogers, Edith Frances Nourse (1881-1960)." From Suffrage to the Senate America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues, edited by Suzanne O’Dea, Salem Press, 2019. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Suffrage3e_0827.
APA 7th
Rogers, Edith Frances Nourse (1881-1960). From Suffrage to the Senate America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues, In S. O’Dea (Ed.), Salem Press, 2019. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Suffrage3e_0827.
CMOS 17th
"Rogers, Edith Frances Nourse (1881-1960)." From Suffrage to the Senate America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues, Edited by Suzanne O’Dea. Salem Press, 2019. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Suffrage3e_0827.