The Chronicles Of Grant County
Georgia Lee Witt Lusk. (The photograph was provided courtesy of the United States House of Representatives.)
Georgia Lee Witt Lusk was the first woman elected to the United States Congress from New Mexico. She was one of two women who had connections to Grant County – the other was Isabella Selmes Greenway – who each became the first women to represent their state in the U S Congress. Representative Greenway represented the State of Arizona.
Georgia Lee Witt was born to George and Mary Isabel Witt in Carlsbad, New Mexico, in 1893. She attended New Mexico Normal University (today known as "New Mexico Highlands University") in Las Vegas and Colorado State Teachers College (today known as the "University of Northern Colorado") in Greeley before attending and graduating from New Mexico State Teachers College (today known as "Western New Mexico University") in Silver City in 1914.
A year later, she married Dolph Lusk in 1915; he was a rancher in Lea County in the far southeastern section of New Mexico. Together, they had three sons. Mr. Lusk died in 1919. According to her official biography from the U S House of Representatives, Mrs. Lusk managed the family ranch as a widow from 1919 to 1943.
She spent much of her life in education, noted her official biography, including working as teacher, serving as the Lea County Superintendent of Schools from 1925 to 1929, and serving as the rural school supervisor in Guadalupe County in 1941 and 1942. Mrs. Lusk served as the New Mexico Superintendent of Public Instruction for several terms, including from 1931 to 1935, from 1943 to 1947, and from 1955 to 1959.
During World War II, all three of the Lusk sons served in the U S military. Her oldest son, Virgil Lusk, flew airplanes for the U S Army in combat in North Africa; he died in a plane crash accident in California in 1943.
George Lee Witt Lusk was elected to represent New Mexico in the 80th U S Congress in 1946. She served one term of office as a Democrat from January of 1947 to January of 1949. At the time, the State of New Mexico had two at-large seats in the U S House of Representatives. Districts were not utilized in New Mexico to elect members of this branch of the U S Congress until the elections in November of 1968.
The Messenger, the official publication of the Belleville Roman Catholic Diocese headquartered in East Saint Louis, Illinois, included a front page news article on May 16, 1947, in which Representative Lusk called for Federal funding of parochial schools. The news article quoted her as speaking very highly of nuns who were employed to help educate children in rural areas of New Mexico.
Her official biography from the U S House of Representatives stated that "Georgia Lee Lusk was the first woman elected to the United States Congress from New Mexico. Representative Lusk entered the 80th Congress (1947–1949) determined to improve the education system, but as the mother of three World War II servicemen, one of whom was killed in action, she also fought for increased benefits for returning war veterans and supported the foreign policy of the Harry S. Truman administration."
She lost her attempt at re-election to the U S Congress in 1948.
President Harry Truman appointed her as a member of the War Claims Commission, according to her official biography. She began service on this commission dealing with World War II in September of 1949. News reports indicated that after his election, President Dwight Eisenhower asked Mrs. Lusk for her resignation; she initially declined, but was eventually removed from her position on that commission in December of 1953.
In 1968, Mrs. Lusk was named to the New Mexico Education Association Hall of Fame.
She died at the age of 77 years in 1971.
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