Ella Grasso

Ella Rosa Giovianna Oliva Grasso (née Tambussi; May 10, 1919 – February 5, 1981) was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served as the 83rd Governor of Connecticut from January 8, 1975, to December 31, 1980, after rejecting past offers of candidacies for Senate and Governor.

She was the first woman elected to this office and the first woman to be elected governor of a U.S. state without having been the spouse or widow of a former governor.

She resigned as governor due to her battle with ovarian cancer.

Grasso started in politics as a member of the League of Women Voters and Democratic speechwriter.

She went on to study sociology and economics at Mount Holyoke College, in South Hadley, Massachusetts, where she earned her B.A. in 1940.

Two years later, she earned a master's degree, also from Mount Holyoke.

She married Thomas Grasso, a school principal, in 1942; they had two children, Susanne and James.

Together the Grassos owned a movie theater in Old Lyme.

In the summers, the couple would operate the theater, with Ella Grasso selling tickets at the box office.

During Grasso's tenure in the United States House of Representatives, her family remained in Connecticut while Grasso commuted home from Washington, D.C., on weekends.

Thomas Grasso retired when his wife became governor.

Grasso's entry into politics came in 1942 when she joined the League of Women Voters.

In 1943, she became a speechwriter for the Connecticut Democratic Party.

After graduation, Grasso served as a researcher for the War Manpower Commission in Washington, D.C., rising to the position of assistant director of research before leaving the Commission in 1946.

After graduating from Mount Holyoke College she joined the Republicans until she switched in 1951 to the Democratic Party to support incumbent Governor Chester Bowles.

Through the Connecticut Democratic Party, she met and became an ally of John Moran Bailey.

Bailey would become a key figure in Grasso's career, recognizing her as someone who could appeal to voters, particularly women and Italian voters in the state.

She was first elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1952 and later became the first female Floor Leader in 1955.

In 1952, Grasso was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives and served until 1957.

She became first woman to be elected Floor Leader of the House in 1955.

As a state representative, Grasso worked to eliminate counties as a level of government in Connecticut.

She was the first woman to chair the Democratic State Platform Committee and served from 1956 to 1968.

She was then elected as Secretary of the State of Connecticut in 1958 and served until 1971.

In 1958 she was elected Secretary of the State of Connecticut and was re-elected in 1962 and 1966.

She was an architect of the state's 1960 Constitution.

She served as a member of the Platform Drafting Committee for the 1960 Democratic National Convention.

In 1961 she chose not to attend the national convention for the National Association of Secretaries of State in Arizona despite the trip being state funded, as she considered it to be of negligible value and would only approve other officials to go to national conventions that would benefit the state.

In 1962 the Supreme Court ruled in Baker v. Carr that the 14th Amendment applies to state apportionment and that federal courts are open to lawsuits challenging state legislative districts leading to further lawsuits over redistricting.

After Reynolds v. Sims the Joint Committee on Constitutional Conventions to hear proposals for a constitutional convention by the Connecticut General Assembly to bring the state constitution in line with federal rulings.

A special election was ordered to choose the eighty-four delegates that would attend the convention, and Grasso was elected as one of them.

As Secretary of State, Grasso swore in the eighty-four delegates divided equally among both parties and was selected as Democratic floor leader by the forty-two Democratic delegates.

She was the co-chairman for the Resolutions Committee for the Democratic National Conventions of 1964 and 1968.

After Senator Thomas J. Dodd was censured in 1967 his seat was left up and Ella was considered a possible candidate for the 1970 Senate race with the Democratic Town Committees of Windsor Locks, Glastonbury, and New Milford voting to endorse her if she would announce a Senate campaign.

Grasso went on to serve two terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1970 to 1974.

During the 1970 election cycle she was considered a candidate for higher statewide or federal office.

Then she was elected Governor in 1974 and re-elected in 1978.

Ella Rosa Giovianna Oliva Tambussi was born in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, to Italian immigrant parents Maria Oliva and James Giacomo Tambussi, a mill worker.

Ella Tambussi learned to speak fluent Italian from her parents.

She attended Chaffee School in Windsor.

Although she excelled at Chaffee and was named most likely to become mayor in the school year book, Tambussi claimed she often felt out of place as someone from a poor mill town.