Iris Faircloth Blitch

Infobox_Congressman
name = Iris Faircloth Blitch


imagesize = 300x250px
date of birth=birth date|1912|04|25|mf=y
place of birth=Toombs County, Georgia
state = Georgia
district = 8th
term=January 3, 1955 – January 3, 1963
preceded=William McDonald Wheeler
succeeded=James Russell Tuten
party=Democratic; Republican
dead=dead
date of death=death date and age |1993|08|19|1912|04|25
place of death=San Diego, California

Iris Faircloth Blitch (April 25, 1912 - August 19, 1993) was a United States Representative from Georgia.She was the third woman elected to Congress from Georgia.Blitch was born near Vidalia, Georgia and attended the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens in 1929. She also attended South Georgia College in Douglas in 1949. Blitch worked with her husband in the drug business, naval stores in industry and farming in Homerville, Georgia.

In 1946, Blitch was elected to the Georgia Senate, and she was subsequently elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1948 but lost her reelection bid to that office in 1950. She won election to the state Senate again in 1952 and remained in that position through December 31, 1954. From 1948 through 1954, Blitch was Georgia's Democratic Party national committee member.

Running a successful campaign for Georgia's 8th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat, Blitch served in the 84th United States Congress. She won reelection to three additional terms in that seat before choosing not to seek reelection in 1962 due to health reasons. In 1964, Mrs. Blitch left the Democratic Party and endorsed Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater.

Within days of her 1954 election, Mrs. Blitch appeared on the American television show "What's My Line" where she was quizzed by Bennett Cerf, Fran Allison, Robert Q. Lewis, and the redoubtable Dorothy Kilgallen.

After her political service, Blitch resided on St. Simons Island, Georgia. She died in San Diego on August 19, 1993 and was buried in Pinelawn Cemetery in Homerville, Georgia.

References

* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE1D8153EF932A1575BC0A965958260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink| NY Times Obituary]