When she went to the bank after her husband’s death and tried to buy property, Corrine “Lindy” Claiborne Boggs was told that she needed a backer for her purchase. Boggs wasn’t to be put off by the sexism that existed in the banking industry at the time. She looked up at the banker and replied “You’re looking at the author of those banking laws.”
While serving in Congress, Boggs was a member of the Appropriations Committee and spearheaded legislation on issues from civil rights to credit access and government service pay equity for women.
But despite spending many years in politics, Boggs still is very much a Southern woman. Last Thursday, at 7 p.m. in Roussel Performance Hall, she told this story and others to WWL-TV anchorwoman Angela Hill.
The interview will be aired on C-SPAN at a later date.
Boggs took the place of her husband, Representative Hale Boggs, in Congress after he disappeared in a 1972 plane crash. She won the next eight elections.
In spite of having such a long political career of her own, Boggs still placed a great importance on her husband’s memory. “I always felt like Mrs. Hale Boggs,” she said.
Boggs also served as the United States ambassador to the Vatican from 1997 to 2000.
A devout Catholic, she came to Loyola as the first speaker sponsored by the fledgling Center for the Study of Catholics in the South. The program was called “A Southern Catholic Woman: A Career in Politics and International Affairs.”
Boggs’ entrance brought the crowd to its feet.
“You’re so connected; it’s like fusion,” said Hill of Boggs and Loyola, after Boggs mentioned that Loyola’s first president had married her parents.
Boggs was nicknamed “Louisiana’s First Lady” during her tenure in Congress.
Hill described Boggs’ transition from Louisiana representative to ambassador to the Vatican as going “from Bourbon Street to across the street from the Circus Maximus.”
Boggs said she initially said no to former President Bill Clinton’s request for her to be ambassador, but eventually agreed to think about it.
The next morning, she went to The Court of Two Sisters for brunch. Raisa Gorbachev, wife of the former Russian president, was also eating, and many cameras were there. “Of course you’d think they’re there for her, but no, the president had announced me as ambassador,” Boggs said. Boggs is the only woman and the only Southerner to hold the position.
Of the many stories Boggs told, the one of meeting John F. Kennedy brought the biggest smile to her face.
One evening her husband told her he’d met a man who was getting over hepatitis. Boggs also had hepatitis at the time. Her husband invited the man to dinner because he and Boggs would be able to eat the same things.She said she got to know Jack Kennedy over a pot of Southern black-eyed peas.
Boggs (Darlin Sylvester)
