Representative Catherine Small Long

Mary Catherine Small Long (born Mary Catherine Small; February 7, 1924 – November 23, 2019) was an American politician who served as the U.S. Representative from Louisiana’s 8th congressional district from 1985 to 1987. A member of the Democratic Party, she filled the remainder of the term left vacant by the death of her husband, Representative Gillis William Long. Until it was disbanded in 1993, Louisiana’s 8th district was based in central Louisiana around Alexandria. During her single term in office, she contributed to the legislative process in the House of Representatives, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of her constituents. She was the first female military veteran elected to Congress, having served as a WAVE in the United States Navy.

Mary Catherine Small was born in Dayton, Ohio, on February 7, 1924, and spent much of her youth in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, where she attended local schools. Coming of age during World War II, she entered military service and joined the United States Navy. As part of the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), she served as a hospital corpsman and pharmacist’s mate, contributing to the wartime medical effort. Her naval service established the foundation for her later distinction as the first woman military veteran to be elected to the U.S. Congress.

Following her World War II service, Small pursued higher education in Louisiana. She enrolled at Louisiana State University and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1948. Her move to Louisiana and her university studies helped introduce her to the state’s political and social life, which would later become central to her public career. In 1947, she married Gillis William Long, a rising figure in Louisiana’s Democratic politics and a member of the prominent Long political family. The couple had two children: George Harrison Long, born October 13, 1954, and Janis Catherine Long, born March 25, 1957.

Before entering elective office herself, Catherine Small Long built a career in and around government and politics. Drawing on her education and experience, she worked on Capitol Hill as a staff assistant to Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon and Representative James G. Polk of Ohio. These positions gave her direct exposure to the workings of Congress, legislative procedure, and constituent service. At the same time, she was deeply involved in supporting the political career of her husband, Gillis Long, who served multiple terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and became an influential figure in Louisiana and national Democratic politics. Observers of the state’s political scene, including former Louisiana lieutenant governor and education superintendent William J. “Bill” Dodd, later described her as the “perfect political wife,” noting her skillful and active role in campaigning and political strategy.

Catherine Small Long’s own congressional career began under somber circumstances. In January 1985, Gillis William Long died in office, creating a vacancy in Louisiana’s 8th congressional district. Later that year, she announced her candidacy in the special election to fill the remainder of his term. Her campaign drew national attention, and several wives of sitting U.S. Representatives traveled to central Louisiana to campaign on her behalf. In the special election, she defeated a field that included Republican Clyde C. Holloway, a nurseryman from Forest Hill in southern Rapides Parish, and Democratic State Representative Jock Scott of Alexandria, who later became a Republican. Taking office in 1985, she served until 1987, completing the term. During her tenure, she compiled a generally liberal voting record in Congress, in line with the positions long advocated by her husband and the broader Democratic delegation from Louisiana. In 1986, she declined to seek election to a full term, choosing instead to retire from elective office at the conclusion of the term she had been elected to complete.

After leaving Congress in 1987, Long withdrew from the front lines of electoral politics but remained identified with the legacy of the Long family and with the generation of women who had entered public life through both military service and political engagement. Her later years were spent largely outside the public spotlight. She resided in the Washington, D.C., area, maintaining ties to former colleagues and friends from her years in public service and from her long association with Louisiana politics.

Mary Catherine Small Long died on November 23, 2019, at age 95, from complications of dementia at an assisted-living facility in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Five years after her death, on what would have been her 100th birthday, her ashes were interred with those of her husband in a ceremony at Alexandria National Cemetery in Alexandria, Louisiana, symbolically returning her to the state and community she had represented in Congress.