Virginia Martinez (Louisiana politician)

Infobox Person
name = Virginia Morse "Ginny" Martinez


image_size =
caption = Virginia Martinez
birth_date = ca. 1922
birth_place = Milford, Worcester County, Massachusetts, USA
death_place = New Orleans, Louisiana
death_date = June 25, 1992 (aged 69)
occupation = Republican party official
spouse = Reginald Vincent Martinez, Jr. (1922-2006)
children=Charles Martinez
Richard Martinez
Reginald V. Martinez, III
religion=Roman Catholic

Virginia Morse Martinez, usually known as Ginny Martinez (born ca. 1922 - June 25, 1992), was a long-term Louisiana Republican Party official who is credited with having landed her party's 1988 national convention in her adopted home city of New Orleans.http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/la/orleans/obits/1/m-07.txt] Delegates nominated the Bush-Quayle ticket. The convention is remembered in part for the controversy which surfaced over the vice presidential nominee, U.S. Senator Dan Quayle's commitment to the National Guard, which allowed the Indianan to avoid active duty in the Vietnam War. [ [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-6636654.html Laissez les bons temps finir. (Republican National Convention) - National Review | Encyclopedia.com ] ] Martinez was the Louisiana Republican National Committeewoman from 1977 until her death. During the first half of her tenure, she served alongside National Committeeman Frank Spooner, a businessman and a former congressional candidate from Monroe, the seat of Ouachita Parish in northeast Louisiana. As a member of the RNC Executive Committee in Washington, D.C., she fought for the Louisiana Superdome as the 1988 convention site. The delegates were greeted by then Democratic Governor Charles E. "Buddy" Roemer, III, who three years later in the spring of 1991 switched to Republican affiliation. Martinez was a member of both the convention Host Committee, which produced the 80-page program, and the Calendar Committee.

Martinez was born in Milford in Worcester County in southern Massachusetts. She graduated from St. Mary's Academy there and then Hunter College in New York City. During World War II, she was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy WAVES. In 1946, after her marriage to Reginald V. Martinez, Jr. (1922-2006), [http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi Social Security Death Index Interactive Search ] ] she relocated to New Orleans, where her family resided until 1977, when the Martinezes moved to the nearby suburb of Kenner in Jefferson Parish. Martinez became active in the Republican Party in 1971, when she, along with state party chairman Charles deGravelles of Lafayette and Mrs. deGravelles, organized on behalf of the Republican gubernatorial nominee, David C. Treen, then of Jefferson Parish. Treen, only the second Republican since Reconstruction to make a serious bid for governor, was defeated in that election cycle but won the governorship eight years later in 1979. She later worked to elect W. Henson Moore, III, of Baton Rouge and Robert "Bob" Livingston of New Orleans to the United States House of Representatives. Martinez was the founding president of the Lakefront Republican Women's Club and held membership in similar organizations in New Orleans and Kenner. She was a member of the Capitol Hill Club in Washington and the City Club in New Orleans. In addition, she was a former vice president of the Louisiana Federation of Republican Women, a political support group founded in 1953. She was the treasurer of the Republican National Conventions which met in Detroit in 1980 and in Dallas in 1984. From 1984 until her death of cancer at the age of sixty-nine in Southern Baptist Hospital of New Orleans, Martinez served as a director of St. Jude's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Survivors included her husband, who later moved to Destin, Florida; her mother, Margaret Morse (1898-1994) of Milford; three sons, Charles Martinez, Richard Martinez, and Reginald Martinez, III; two brothers, Jay Morse and Glenn Morse, and six grandchildren. A Roman Catholic mass was held on June 28, 1992, at a New Orleans funeral home. Entombment was in Lake Lawn Mausoleum in New Orleans. In 1991, the Louisiana Federation of Republican Women established the "Ginny Martinez Scholarship Award" to honor her work in encouraging young women to enter government service. [ [http://www.nfrw.org/statefederations/louisiana.htm National Federation of Republican Women ] ]

References