During the two decades Marilyn Lloyd served in Congress, Tennessee’s 3rd District was Republican territory and becoming more so. So it is to her credit that district voters continued to return the Democrat to the seat.
Lloyd, who died Wednesday at the age of 89, may have won her seat in 1974 on a sympathy vote after the airplane crash death of her husband, Mort, who had won the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House seat, but she kept it, thrived in it and learned how to be an effective public servant with dedication, tenacity and perseverance.
The Fort Smith, Arkansas, native was a conservative Democrat, a breed that has almost vanished from the U.S. political spectrum. She was a proud patriot who happily peddled the country’s freedom, its many opportunities and its necessary place in global affairs.
Lloyd was the first woman elected to Congress in Tennessee for a full term. Two others, including Irene Baker, the mother of future Sen. Howard Baker, won special elections to fill out their husband’s terms and did not run again. But Lloyd was no neophyte, having helped operate her husband’s radio and aviation interests for years before his death.
She also served in the 3rd District seat longer than any other person save one, John Moon, who was in office from 1897 to 1921.