Question: Who was the first woman from Texas elected to Congress?
Answer: Lera Millard Thomas. She was born in Nacogdoches in 1900 and attended Brenau College in Georgia and the University of Alabama. In 1922, she married Albert Thomas, who was elected to Congress in 1936 and was influential in the selection of Houston as the site for NASA’s human spaceflight operations.
When Albert died of cancer in 1966, Lera won the special election to fill his seat the following month. She did not run for reelection, and she worked as a war correspondent in Vietnam for a Houston newspaper after leaving office. In her later years, she established the Millard’s Crossing Historic Village in Nacogdoches and served on the board of regents for Stephen F. Austin State University.
