Mary Louise Smith; Longtime GOP Leader

DES MOINES, Iowa — Mary Louise Smith, a moderating force within the GOP who was the only woman to have chaired the Republican National Committee, died Friday. She was 82.

Smith had been ill for several months with lung cancer. She died at a Des Moines hospital.

In April, Smith said she was undergoing radiation therapy on her left lung after a tumor was found. She said it was unrelated to breast cancer, for which she was treated in 1993.

“I haven’t smoked for 17 years, but the early cigarettes took their toll,” she said. “My message is we need to educate ourselves about smoking, which is a disaster for young people.”

Smith, known for her support of abortion rights, chaired the RNC from 1974 to 1977. In 1976, she was the first woman to organize and call to order the national convention of a major American political party.

She served on the National Committee from 1964 to 1984, and was a “moderating force” within the GOP, said former Iowa Gov. Bob Ray.

One of the most respected political figures in the state, Smith was a founding member of the Iowa Women’s Political Caucus and was inducted into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame in 1977.

Smith served on the board of directors of Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa from 1986 to 1992. At a National Women’s Political Caucus in August 1989, she said the caucus must convey the message that supporting reproductive rights is “a good thing to do.”

“Mainstream Republican voices have not been heard from loudly on this issue,” she said. “Maybe we should turn up the volume.”

Smith, an Eddyville native, graduated from the University of Iowa in 1935 and in 1991 helped start the Women’s Archives at the school.

Iowa State University in Ames honored her with the Mary Louise Smith Endowed Chair in Women and Politics.

“Mary Louise Smith has been a woman of many firsts while serving as an advocate for women’s issues and a leader in American politics for nearly 40 years,” ISU President Martin Jischke said in announcing the chair in October 1996.