Virginia D. Smith
| Virginia D. Smith | |
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Nebraska's 3rd district |
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In office January 3, 1975 – January 3, 1991 |
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| Preceded by | David Martin |
| Succeeded by | Bill Barrett |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Virgnia Dodd June 30, 1911 Randolph, Iowa |
| Died | January 23, 2006 (aged 94) Sun City West, Arizona |
| Political party | Republican |
Virginia Dodd Smith (June 30, 1911 – January 23, 2006) was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 1991 from the Third Congressional District of Nebraska. She was the first woman from Nebraska to hold a seat in the House.
She was born in Randolph in Fremont County in the southwestern tip of Iowa, to Clifton Clark Dodd and the former Erville Reeves. On August 27, 1931, she married Haven N. Smith (May 28, 1909 – May 12, 1997). The Smiths died in Sun City, Arizona, where they had resided after 1991. There were no children from the marriage. They are buried in Iowa.
Virginia Smith graduated from the University of Nebraska in the capital city of Lincoln in 1936. For most of her adult life, she and Haven lived in Chappell, in Deuel County, in the Nebraska Panhandle and worked as an advocate on rural and agricultural issues. She was a member of the Business and Professional Women's Club and served as national president from 1951 to 1954 of the American Country Life Association.
She was a Republican National Convention delegate at each party conclave from 1956 to 1972. Smith was elected to succeed Representative Dave Martin in 1974. In the year of Watergate, she defeated her Democratic opponent by just 737 votes, but she was easily re-elected in subsequent elections. A young Karl Rove, later famous as an advisor to U.S. President George W. Bush, worked on the Smith campaign that year in one of his first election assignments. In 1984, Mrs. Smith was named "Independent Woman of the Year."
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