HARDEN, Cecil Murray
HARDEN, Cecil Murray
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(1894 - 1984)
HARDEN, Cecil Murray, a Representative from Indiana; born in Covington, Fountain County, Ind., November 21, 1894; graduated from the public schools of Covington, Ind., 1912; attended the University of Indiana, Bloomington, Ind.; teacher; Republican National committeewoman from Indiana, 1944-1959, 1964-1972; delegate at large to the Republican National Conventions in 1948, 1952, 1956, and 1968; elected as a Republican to the Eighty-first and to the four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1949-January 3, 1959); unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Eighty-sixth Congress in 1958; special assistant for women´s affairs to Postmaster General, Washington, D.C., March 1959 to March 1961; member, National Advisory Committee for the White House Conference on Aging, 1972-1973; died on December 5, 1984, in Lafayette, Ind.
Congressional Biographies
File Created: 2006-Aug-29
Source: Decatur Daily Democrat 30 June 1960 p 8
Mrs. Cecil M. Harden, former Indiana representative in Congress. will be the personal Representative of postmaster general l Arthur Summerfield at the rural letter carriers’ convention, which will be held in Decatur July 3, 4, and 5. Mrs. Harden was nominated by the sixth district Republican central committee of Indiana July 28, 1948, to be a candidate for the congressional vacancy created by the resignation of Rep. Noble J. Johnson. On November 2. 1948, she was elected and she was reelected by substantial majorities in 1950, 1952, 1954,1956. During her terms in Congress, Mrs. Harden was a member of the house committee on Veteran’s affairs, government operations committee, and she was chairman of the subcommittee on intergovernmental relations. For six years, Mrs. Harden was a member of the house committee on post office and. civil service. In 1951. as a member of a house subcommittee, Mrs. Harden be-; came the first woman member of Congress to make an official trip around the world during which the committee studied military surplus property disposal, Mrs. Harden was appointed by postmaster general Summerfield to be special assistant to the postmaster general for women's affairs March 7, 1959. The formal swearing in ceremonies took place April 10. 1959. Mrs. Harden was born in Covington, Fountain county. November 21. 1894. and still makes that western Indiana community her home. Her husband is a retired automobile dealer and their only son lives with his wife in Lafayette. The former congresswoman has three grandchildren. Mrs. Harden is a former teacher in the Fountain County and Covington city school systems. She has long been active in community affairs and served for six years as president of the Fountain County welfare board.