Margaret Mary Heckler (born June 21, 1931) is a Republican politician from Massachusetts who served in the United States House of Representatives for eight terms, from 1967 until 1983 and was later the Secretary of Health and Human Services and Ambassador to Ireland under President Ronald Reagan. After her defeat in 1982 no woman would be elected to Congress from Massachusetts until Niki Tsongas in a special election in 2007.
She was born Margare...
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Margaret Mary Heckler (born June 21, 1931) is a Republican politician from Massachusetts who served in the United States House of Representatives for eight terms, from 1967 until 1983 and was later the Secretary of Health and Human Services and Ambassador to Ireland under President Ronald Reagan. After her defeat in 1982 no woman would be elected to Congress from Massachusetts until Niki Tsongas in a special election in 2007.
She was born Margaret Mary O'Shaughnessy in Flushing, New York. Her undergraduate studies began at the University of Leiden in Holland in 1952. After graduating from Albertus Magnus College (B.A.1953) and from Boston College Law School (LL.B. 1956), she was admitted to the bar in Massachusetts. She had also been editor of the Annual Survey of Massachusetts Law.
From 1962 to 1966, Heckler served as an elected Governor’s Councilor for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1964 and 1968 and elected as a...
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