Ambassador Lindy Boggs to Receive the Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Medal at Ƶ College
GREENSBURG, PA—Corinne (Lindy) Claiborne Boggs, the first woman United States Ambassador to the Holy See (Vatican), will be the 15th recipient of the Ƶ College Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Medal. Ambassador Boggs will receive the honor on Friday, June 8, 2001 as part of the College’s celebration of the reopening of the newly renovated and restored Administration Building. The Ƶ College Alumnae Corporation selected Ambassador Boggs for the tribute.
The subject of the book, We Are Our Mother’s Daughters, by her daughter Cokie Roberts, Lindy Boggs was the first woman to serve in the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana and served nine terms before retiring in 1990. She succeeded her husband, House Majority Leader Hale Boggs, by special election in March 1973, after the plane carrying him disappeared over Alaska in October 1972.
In 1976, Mrs. Boggs was the first woman to chair the National Democratic Convention and was also the first woman to serve as a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution. She presided over the Bicentennial of the American Constitution in 1987 and chaired the Commission commemorating the 200th Anniversary of Congress.
In 1997, President Clinton appointed Mrs. Boggs as United States Ambassador to the Holy See (Vatican).
Mrs. Boggs is a native of Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana and is a graduate of Sophie Newcomb College at Tulane University. She is a member of the Military and Hospitalier Order of St. Lazarus and the Order of Malta, Knights of the Holy Sepulchre and the Constantinian Order of St. George, the Colonial Dames, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the National Foundation of the National Archives, the Stennis Center and many other distinguished organizations.
In addition to holding honorary degrees from 33 institutions, Mrs. Boggs has received numerous other honors that include the first American Veterans Auxiliary National Humanitarian Award, the Eleanor Roosevelt Centennial Award, the National Science Foundation’s Distinguished Service Award, the first annual International Women’s Forum Award and the Louisiana Library Association’s Literary Award for her book, Washington Through a Purple Veil.
The Ƶ College Alumnae Corporation, which selected Boggs for the award, created the Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Award in 1959 to commemorate the life of Elizabeth Ann Seton, founder of the Sisters of Charity. The designation of a contemporary woman whose life’s achievements parallel, in some way, Elizabeth Seton’s, emphasizes the relevance of her life in today’s ever-changing world.
College President JoAnne Boyle said, “We find it most appropriate to recognize Lindy Boggs with the Seton Medal. Through her commitment to protect and advance human rights by correcting economic imbalances between rich and poor and to promote peace in troubled areas of the world, she best represents the values espoused by Elizabeth Seton and by Ƶ College today. Lindy Boggs represents a meaningful symbol of all that can be accomplished with strength of spirit. We are delighted that she will be with us as we commemorate important moments in the life of Ƶ College—the anniversary of Mother Seton’s canonization and the rededication of our 100-year old campus centerpiece, the Administration Building.”
Past recipients of The Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Medal include Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Mary Reed Newland, Sister de Chantal Leis, Rita Burke, Dolores Hope, Judge Genevieve Blatt, Mary Keener Alwine, Madge Skelly, Margaret Giannini, M.D., Sister Maria del Rey Danforth, Julia Montgomery Walsh, Margaret Heagarty, M.D., Rosemary Haughton, and Sister Gemma Del Duca.