Eugenie Anderson

Infobox US Ambassador
name = Helen Eugenie Moore Anderson


imagesize = 119px
birth_date = birth date|1909|5|26
birth_place = Adair, Iowa
death_date = death date and age|1997|31|3|1926|22|5
death_place = Red Wing, Minnesota
ambassador_from =United States
country = Denmark
term_start = December 22, 1949
term_end = January 19, 1953
predecessor = Josiah Marvel, Jr.
successor = Robert D. Coe
president = Harry S. Truman
ambassador_from2=United States
country2 = Bulgaria
term_start2 = August 3, 1962
term_end2 = December 6, 1964
president2 = John F. Kennedy
predecessor2 = Edward Page, Jr.
successor2 = Nathaniel Davis
party=Democratic Party
profession=Diplomat, Politician
spouse = John Pierce Anderson
children = Hans, Johanna
religion = Methodist

Eugenie Anderson (May 26, 1909 – March 31, 1997), also known as Helen Eugenie Moore Anderson, was a United States diplomat. She is best known as the first woman appointed chief of mission at the ambassador level in US history (although several other women had been foreign ministers before her.

Personal life

Helen Eugenie Moore was born on May 26, 1909, in Adair, Iowa, one of five children of Rev. Ezekial A. Moore, a Methodist minister, and his wife, FloraBelle. She concentrated in music as a student, and attended the Juilliard School in New York; her original hope was to become a concert pianist. She married John Pierce Anderson in 1929 and had two children, Hans and Johanna.cite news
first = David
last = Binder
title = Eugenie Anderson, 87, First Woman to Be U.S. Ambassador
url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9806EFD6173DF930A35757C0A961958260
work = New York Times
date = 1997-04-03
accessdate = 2008-03-31
quote = ]

Public life

Anderson's interest in international affairs had been stirred by a trip to Europe in 1937, where in Germany she first saw a "totalitarian state in action," as she recalled. On her return she spoke frequently for the League of Women Voters, fighting the strong isolationist policies of the time.

Anderson helped to create the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in 1944. Four years later, as one of the few women, she was elected to an office in the national Democratic Party. In 1948, as the DFL split from the national Democratic Party in a controversy over goals and ideology, she supported Hubert H. Humphrey. She was rewarded for this support in 1949, when she was appointed by President Truman as U.S. ambassador to Denmark (1949-1953) [cite web
url = http://www.mnhs.org/library/tips/history_topics/31anderson.html
title = Eugenie Moore Anderson
accessdate = 2008-03-31
work = Eugenie Anderson Papers
publisher = Minnesota Historical Society
language = English] [cite web
url = http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/po/com/10497.htm
title = United States Department of State: Ambassadors to Denmark
accessdate = 2008-03-31
publisher = United States Department of State
language = English] . Truman's appointment made her the first woman appointed chief of mission at the ambassador level in US history. [cite web
url = http://www.state.gov/s/d/rm/rls/perfrpt/2005/html/56313.htm
title = Women in Diplomacy
accessdate = 2008-03-31
year = 2005
month = November
work = Bureau of Resource Management, United States Department of State
publisher =
language = English] (The first female chief of mission at the minister rank was Ruth Bryan Owen in 1933).

She was later appointed by Kennedy to be ambassador to Bulgaria (1962-1964) [cite web
url = http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/po/com/10398.htm
title = United States Department of State: Ambassadors to Bulgaria
accessdate = 2008-03-31
publisher = United States Department of State
language = English] . Thus Anderson became the first American woman to represent the United States in a country allied with the Soviet Union.

After her retirement from these posts, President Johnson appointed Anderson to the United Nations Trusteeship Council and a year later she served on the United Nations Committee for Decolonization.

References

cite book
last = Lamson
first = Peggy
year = 1968
title = Few Are Chosen: American Women in Political Life Today
publisher = Houghton Mifflin
location = Boston
id =

cite web
url = http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/anderson4.html#RJP17D4EG
title = Helen Eugenie Moore Anderson
accessdate = 2008-03-31
publisher = The Political Graveyard
language = English