Barbara Boggs Sigmund

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Barbara Boggs Sigmund (May 27, 1939 - October 10, 1990) was a daughter of the powerful Democratic United States Representative Hale Boggs of Louisiana, and Lindy Boggs, who became a Congresswoman from Louisiana after her husband's untimely death in an air crash.[1]

[edit] Career

Barbara Boggs had worked as a letter writer for President John F. Kennedy, and served as on the Mercer County, New Jersey Board of Chosen Freeholders. She finished a respectable fourth (out of nine) in the crowded 1982 Democratic Senate primary, behind Frank Lautenberg (who won the nomination and has since served more than 20 years in the Senate) and two former United States Congressmen. She later was elected Mayor of Princeton, New Jersey.

In 1990, Mrs. Sigmund died of cancer, aged 51, following an 8-year battle. She had already lost an eye to the disease, necessitating an eyepatch. The patch became iconic when she attended events as the Mayor of Princeton Borough sporting an eye patch matched to her outfit.

She founded Womanspace, a Mercer County, New Jersey non-profit agency that provides services — 24-hour hotlines, crisis intervention, emergency shelter, counseling, court advocacy, and housing — to victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence.[2]

A graduate of Stone Ridge and Manhattanville College, she taught at the Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart (Princeton, N.J.), which, in honor of her life, now annually awards the Barbara Boggs Sigmund Alumnae Award.[3]

Her siblings are Cokie Roberts and Tommy Boggs.

In addition to her mother and siblings, she was survived by her husband, Paul Sigmund.[4]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ The Political Graveyard: Index to Politicians: Sigars to Silon
  2. ^ 2006 Barbara Boggs Sigmund Award to NPR Correspondent Nina Totenberg By Linda Arntzenius
  3. ^ Barbara Boggs Sigmund Award
  4. ^ 1983: Mayor Barbara By LAUREN M. BLACK, THE CAPITAL CENTURY 1900-1999