Bookended by tragedy, Vera Buchanan’s brief tenure
in the U.S. House of Representatives began in 1951
as an extension of her late husband’s legislative efforts
representing blue-collar steel workers in southwest
Pittsburgh. But by the time she stood for re-election 18
months later in the newly reapportioned, more center-city
district, Buchanan demonstrated that she was not merely a
caretaker of the office her husband once held, but a skilled
politician in her own right.
Vera Daerr was born in Wilson, Pennsylvania, on July
20, 1902, daughter of John Daerr and Jennie Leasure
Daerr.1 She grew up in the steel mill town of Duquesne,
Pennsylvania, and attended local public and parochial
schools. After high school, she worked as a secretary for
a Duquesne steel company. In 1929 Vera Daerr married
Frank Buchanan, an automobile dealer and teacher,
and the couple raised twin daughters: Jane and Joan. In
1942 Vera Buchanan helped her husband win election
as mayor of McKeesport, a post which he held for four
years. Vera operated a beauty shop and was a member
of the Democratic Women’s Guild. As the first lady of
McKeesport, she conducted a listening campaign to
familiarize herself with the needs of constituents and began
cultivating a support base for future election campaigns. In
May 1946, Frank won the special election to fill the vacancy
left in the 79th Congress (1945–1947) by the resignation
of Representative Samuel Weis. The Congressman was
re-elected to the next three consecutive terms. Serving on
the Banking and Currency Committee, Frank Buchanan
became an expert in housing legislation and earned a
reputation as a bright, candid, and liberal Member of the
House. He chaired a select committee that brought to light
extensive corporate and union lobbying efforts on Capitol
Hill.2 Vera Buchanan served as her husband’s secretary
during his five-year tenure in Congress.
Vera Buchanan’s leap into elective politics came
unexpectedly when Congressman Buchanan died suddenly
on April 27, 1951, at the age of 48. The Pennsylvania
Democratic Party chose his widow to run for the vacated
seat; she accepted the invitation. “We were a very close-knit
family,” Buchanan later explained. “Frank’s death was
a great shock. I decided to run because I wanted to see
the things he believed in carried on.”3 Part of Buchanan’s
motivation was to clear her husband’s name after he had
been attacked by a redbaiting columnist. Prior to his death,
Frank Buchanan had developed a lengthy refutation which
he was never able to deliver on the House Floor—and Vera
Buchanan wanted to put it on the record herself.4
Critics suggested that Vera Buchanan was running as
a contender based strictly on her husband’s name. The
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette despaired that “Mrs. Buchanan’s
foremost attribute was that she was the widow of Frank
Buchanan.”5 Vera Buchanan dispelled any question of
her legitimacy in a tough, quick-witted campaign that
echoed her husband’s positions. “I’ll be proud to support
a President—Harry S. Truman—who has labored and
devoted the highest office in the land to restoring law
and order in the world,” Buchanan told supporters days
before the election. Her opponent, Republican Clifford W.
Flegal, the McKeesport city controller, attacked Truman
and Secretary of State Dean G. Acheson for being soft on
communism and for the unpopular Korean War. When
Flegal challenged Buchanan to a debate, she retorted: “The
oldest saw in politics is ‘Let’s debate.’ This is no time for
hot air. It’s time for decision. If my opponent hasn’t made
up his mind at this late date, it’s just too bad. My mind is
made up.”6 In the July 24, 1951, special election, Buchanan
defeated Flegal with nearly 62 percent of the vote and
was sworn into Congress by House Speaker Sam Rayburn
of Texas a week later, on August 1.7 Following the 1950
Census, Pennsylvania lost three congressional seats. In the
redrawn district, which encompassed heavily unionized
sections of Pittsburgh, her native McKeesport, and other
steel-making communities, Buchanan proved an even more
powerful incumbent. In 1952 and 1954, she defeated GOP
opponents by two-to-one margins.8
In the House, Vera Buchanan served on three
committees: Banking and Currency; Merchant Marine and
Fisheries; and Public Works. In early 1952, she resigned
her Merchant Marine and Fisheries post to concentrate
on her remaining assignments.9 As had her husband,
Congresswoman Buchanan employed her daughter, Jane, to
serve as her secretary.
A solid supporter of most Truman administration
policies, Buchanan became a critic of the Dwight D.
Eisenhower administration’s efforts to roll back domestic
welfare programs. Vera Buchanan, like her husband, took a
special interest in housing legislation. In 1954 she criticized
Eisenhower’s plan to halve the number of annual public
housing projects over a four-year period. Noting that
federal housing in McKeesport and Pittsburgh had been a
success, she urged the Republican majority in the House
to restore the figure to 75,000 per year, where it had been
under President Truman. “An American family … should
have a chance to live in decent housing,” Buchanan said
in a floor speech. “Housing is one of the most important
factors in a child’s environment. We have ample evidence
that juvenile delinquency flourishes out of all proportion in
slum areas, and out of juvenile delinquency grows vicious
adult crime.”10 She attacked efforts to remove price controls
on grocery commodities and rental units, noting that the
“cost of living is nearing an all-time high, but the legislation
to deal with the problem is nearing an all-time low.”11 For
these and other of her legislative forays, Buchanan earned
a reputation as a trusted ally among her district’s union
members and other laborers. Buchanan also pushed for the
study of the flood problems plaguing her district, insisting
on federal funding for the Turtle Creek Valley Flood
Control Project, after a series of floods devastated local
housing and industry.12
Congresswoman Buchanan demonstrated an
independence from parochial interests. She supported the
development of the St. Lawrence Seaway Project, and her
appointment to the Public Works Committee in 1952 led
to open speculation that the long-stalled piece of legislation
would begin moving through the House.13 Initially, opinion
in her district had been against its development, but it
became more evenly split after the discovery of the large
Labrador iron ore deposits in Canada (iron was a critical
raw material for steel production). Buchanan’s reasoning
was simple and extended beyond the narrow focus of
her district. She argued that since the seaway would be
built either jointly with Canada or without any U.S.
involvement, that it was in the “national self-interest and
the self-interest of every industry and business in the United
States [to] require that our Government have a full, equal
voice in the construction and operation of so important
a waterway—a full and equal voice on every aspect of
the operation.”14 The House eventually approved U.S.
participation in the St. Lawrence project in 1956.
When President Eisenhower took office in 1953,
Buchanan raised concerns about the bellicose rhetoric
of his new Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles. Dulles
was then developing his concept of “massive retaliation,”
which threatened Soviet leaders in the Kremlin with instant
nuclear annihilation for any military provocations—whether conventional or nuclear—at any point around the
globe.15 While suspicious of Moscow’s designs, Buchanan
nevertheless expressed concern that Washington officials
were relying too much on the threat of nuclear deterrence.
“But are we doing enough, trying hard enough to restore
sanity and peace—real peace—to the world?” she said in
a floor speech. “Have we tried every possible avenue of
approach? Have we left anything undone which could
possibly—even as a long chance—mean enduring peace
and the end of the constant danger of atomic incineration
of mankind?”16
In June of 1955, during her third term in Congress,
Buchanan became ill. A condition initially diagnosed as
bronchial pneumonia turned out to be terminal late-stage
cancer. Despite the diagnosis, Buchanan tried to carry on
her congressional work from her hospital bed—first at
the Bethesda Naval Hospital and, later, for the final three
months of her life, in a hospital in McKeesport. During her
final days, House Majority Leader John W. McCormack
of Massachusetts visited Buchanan. When he rose to leave,
Buchanan said, “Good-bye, my friend.” McCormack
replied, “I won’t say ‘good-bye,’ just ‘so long.’ I’ll see you up
in the Gallery.”17 Buchanan passed away on November 26,
1955, becoming the first woman Member to die in office.
“I learned to know Vera Buchanan as I had known Frank
Buchanan, loyal, hard-working, intelligent, and considerate,”
eulogized Representative Abraham Jacob Multer of New York.
“I can think of no greater tribute … they had a keen sense of
devotion to the services of the people of this country—not
only their district but of the country.”18
View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
[ Top ]