Louise G. Reece, an inseparable political companion
during her husband Brazilla Carroll Reece’s long service
as a Tennessee Representative, won a special election to
succeed him after his death in 1961. Her brief career in
Congress was a direct product of decades of experience in
support of his busy schedule—running Brazilla Reece’s
re-election campaigns, scouting key legislation, and, in his
absence, making important contacts on his behalf. During
her 19 months on Capitol Hill, Louise Reece followed her
husband’s example as a fiscal conservative and defender of
business interests in eastern Tennessee.
Louise Despard Goff was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
on November 6, 1898, the only child of Guy Despard
Goff, a lawyer who had left his native Clarksburg, West
Virginia, for Milwaukee, and Louise Van Nortwick Goff, a
graduate of Wells College. In April 1905, her mother died
of a paralytic stroke.1 Born to a wealthy family of bankers
and lawyers, Louise Goff was educated at private schools
in Milwaukee and at the prestigious Miss Spence’s School
in New York City. In 1912 her grandfather Nathan Goff, a
former U.S. Representative from West Virginia and a U.S.
circuit court judge, was elected to the U.S. Senate. In 1917,
Louise Goff moved to Washington, DC, with her family when her father was appointed a special assistant to the U.S.
Attorney General. He worked in that capacity intermittently
for six years, while also serving as the general counsel
of the U.S. Shipping Board and, during World War I,
as a commissioned Army colonel in the Judge Advocate
General’s Department. In 1924, Guy Goff won election
to his father’s old Senate seat from West Virginia. The
Goff family lived in Washington, and Louise Goff became
immersed in the capital’s social life. She left the comforts of
home in 1920, to volunteer for an American relief effort in
France spearheaded by Anne Morgan, daughter of financier
J. P. Morgan. While in France, Goff drove ambulances
through areas of the country that had been ravaged by
World War I.2
In 1923 Louise Goff married Brazilla Reece, initiating
an almost-four-decade-long political union. Brazilla
Reece, then a second-term Republican Representative
from Tennessee, had been a highly decorated World War
I serviceman and university administrator. The couple
settled into a home in Washington, DC, and spent their
summers and recess breaks in Johnson City, Tennessee, until
World War II, when Louise Reece and the couple’s only
child, a daughter named Louise, moved back full-time to Tennessee. Brazilla Reece served 18 total terms in the House
(1921–1931; 1933–1947; 1951–1961). He represented the
formerly Unionist, and safely Republican, upper-eastern
section of the state. Reece was deeply conservative and an
isolationist, and forged a close political alliance with Senator
Robert Alphonso Taft of Ohio. He helped to shape and
to amend such measures as the Food and Drug Act and
the Federal Communications Act, opposed much of the
New Deal, and was a fervent anti-communist during the
early Cold War years.3 Reece also was the acknowledged
leader of the Tennessee GOP and the most prominent
of southern Republicans.4 In 1947 he relinquished his
House seat to chair the Republican National Committee
(RNC), supporting Taft at the 1948 Republican National
Convention and resigning his seat after the nomination of
Thomas Dewey. He returned to the House in 1951 to serve
another decade.5
During her husband’s lengthy service in the House,
Louise Reece made regular appearances on the campaign
trail and acted as his chauffeur during campaign swings.
During several of his re-election campaigns, she later
recalled, “he stayed in Washington and I came home and
ran things. In those days he only had to show at just one
county rally to clinch another term. But all I knew about
politics, I learned from him.”6 She also worked as Brazilla
Reece’s eyes and ears in Washington, tracking legislation
in caucus meetings or congressional committees, and as an
observer and point of contact at GOP meetings, including
the national conventions. Even after Louise Reece moved
away from the capital in the early 1940s, she returned
often to assist her husband while living out of a hotel. One
congressional aide recalled that “most East Tennesseans
thought of them as Mr. and Mrs. Republican.” Their
daughter, who, as a licensed pilot, also transported Brazilla
Reece around eastern Tennessee, recalled of her parents’
political partnership, “They were a team.”7
Following a long battle with cancer, Congressman
Brazilla Reece died on March 19, 1961.8 Less than a week
after his death, Louise Reece announced her intention to
seek the GOP nomination to fill out the remainder of his
term.9 Two days later, local Republican committeemen
unanimously chose her as their candidate to succeed
Brazilla Reece and simultaneously called for a nominating
convention for April 15.10 Reece was opposed in the GOP
convention by Leland Davis, a 38-year-old oilman with no
previous experience in politics.11 Reece prevailed handily and, for the next five weeks, campaigned extensively
throughout the district, much as she had nearly 20 years
earlier on behalf of her husband. “I thought of a lot of back
roads my husband had forgotten,” she remarked.12 The first
returns on the evening of the May 16, 1961, special election
came from Brazilla Reece’s home county, Johnson County,
where Louise won with 1,800 votes out of 2,000 cast. That
trend carried over throughout the district. In the three-way
race, Louise Reece defeated her nearest competitor,
Democrat William Faw, who had been endorsed by Senator
Carey Estes Kefauver, by a two-to-one margin.13 Shortly
after winning, she told a reporter, “I am a conservative.
You can count on me to be on that side. I’m going with
the Republican leaders.” She noted that her interests
would be in the areas of juvenile delinquency and school
building projects. Reflecting on her victory further, Reece
said that being a Member of Congress was “the last thing
I ever thought of.” From her earliest days, such aspirations
had, apparently, been discouraged. She recalled her father’s
exclusionary practices as a Senator: “No woman ever got
inside his office door.”14
Louise Reece took the oath of office on May 23, 1961,
and was assigned to the Committee on Public Works. In an
effort to protect her district’s glass industry, Reece paired
with West Virginia Representative Cleveland Monroe
Bailey in urging President John F. Kennedy to restore
tariff rates on certain glass products.15 She joined the other
Republicans on the Public Works Committee in issuing
a report in opposition to the Public Works Acceleration
and Coordination Act that they thought would needlessly
increase federal spending and overburden the bureaucracy.
Though she supported government aid to build schools, she
opposed federal dollars going towards increasing teachers’
pay. “If that comes, the next thing they will do is to tell
us what to teach,” she said.16 In a special order marking
the 45th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment
guaranteeing women the right to vote, Reece dedicated one
of her rare floor speeches to recalling the role of Tennessee
in providing the final vote for ratification. “I feel highly
honored to be a Member of the present delegation from
the great Volunteer State that made this contribution to the
progress of our country and to women in particular,” Reece
said, joining most of her women colleagues in a round of
celebratory speeches.17
A severe arthritic condition cut her congressional career
short.18 The 63-year-old Congresswoman announced in January 1962 that she would not be a candidate for re-election.
“A younger person, who can start building up some
seniority for the district, ought to be here in Washington,”
Reece told reporters.19 Her successor, Republican James
Henry Quillen, did just that, winning election in 1962 to
the first of 17 consecutive terms in the House. Louise Reece
returned to her business interests in Tennessee and West
Virginia and succeeded her late husband on the RNC. She
was still a member of the RNC when she died in Johnson
City, Tennessee, on May 14, 1970.20
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