Maude Elizabeth KEE, Congress, WV (1895-1975)

KEE, Maude Elizabeth, (wife of John Kee and mother of James Kee), a Representative from West Virginia; born Maude Elizabeth Simpkins, in Radford, Montgomery County, Va., June 7, 1895; attended public and private schools of Montgomery County, Roanoke, Va., Washington, D.C., and Bluefield, W.Va.; graduated from Roanoke Business College, Roanoke, Va.; author of a weekly column in West Virginia newspapers; sponsor of library for physically handicapped at Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center, Fishersville, Va.; served as executive secretary to her husband, John Kee, from November 1932 until his death; elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-second Congress by special election July 17, 1951, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of her husband, John Kee; reelected to the six succeeding Congresses and served from July 17, 1951, to January 3, 1965; was not a candidate for reelection in 1964 to the Eighty-ninth Congress; resided in Bluefield, W.Va., where she died February 15, 1975; interment in Monte Vista Park Cemetery.

Bibliography

Heywood, Shari A. “Elizabeth Kee: A Clarion Voice of and for the People of Southern West Virginia, 1951-1964.” M. A. Thesis, Marshall University, 2006; Hardin, William H. “Elizabeth Kee: West Virginia’s First Woman in Congress.” West Virginia History 45 (1984): 109-124.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present