Elizabeth Dole

Elizabeth Dole
Official portrait, 2003
United States Senator
from North Carolina
In office
January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2009
Preceded byJesse Helms
Succeeded byKay Hagan
Chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee
In office
January 3, 2005 – January 3, 2007
LeaderBill Frist
Preceded byGeorge Allen
Succeeded byJohn Ensign
20th United States Secretary of Labor
In office
January 25, 1989 – November 23, 1990
PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush
Preceded byAnn McLaughlin Korologos
Succeeded byLynn Morley Martin
8th United States Secretary of Transportation
In office
February 7, 1983 – September 30, 1987
PresidentRonald Reagan
Preceded byDrew Lewis
Succeeded byJames H. Burnley IV
Director of the Office of Public Liaison
In office
January 20, 1981 – February 7, 1983
PresidentRonald Reagan
Preceded byAnne Wexler
Succeeded byFaith Whittlesey
Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission
In office
December 4, 1973 – March 9, 1979
Appointed byRichard Nixon
Preceded byMary Gardiner Jones
Succeeded byPatricia Bailey
Personal details
Born
Mary Elizabeth Alexander Hanford

(1936-07-29) July 29, 1936 (age 88)
Salisbury, North Carolina, U.S.
Political partyRepublican (1975–present)
Other political
affiliations
Democratic (before 1975)
Spouse
(m. 1975; died 2021)
EducationDuke University (BA)
Harvard University (MEd, JD)
AwardsPresidential Medal of Freedom (2024)
Signature

Mary Elizabeth Alexander Dole (née Hanford; born July 29, 1936)[1] is an American attorney, author, and politician who served as a United States Senator from North Carolina from 2003 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served in five presidential administrations, including as U.S. Secretary of Transportation under President Ronald Reagan from 1983 to 1987 and as U.S. Secretary of Labor under Reagan's successor, George H. W. Bush, from 1989 until 1990. Dole then left government to serve as president of the American Red Cross from 1991 to 1999; she departed from that position to seek the Republican nomination in the 2000 presidential election but eventually withdrew from the race.

Dole graduated from Duke University in 1958 and earned a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1965. Throughout her public career, she was the first woman to hold a number of positions, including secretary of transportation, becoming the first woman to serve in two different presidential cabinet positions for two presidents after being appointed secretary of labor, as well as the first female U.S. senator from North Carolina and chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. She was also the third female secretary of labor and just the second woman to lead the American Red Cross since its founder, Clara Barton. She is the widow of U.S. Senator Bob Dole from Kansas, who served as the Republican Senate leader and was the party's presidential nominee in the 1996 election and vice presidential nominee in the 1976 election.

  1. ^ Mary Ella Cathey Hanford, "Asbury and Hanford Families: Newly Discovered Genealogical Information" The Historical Trail 33 (1996), pp. 44–45, 49.