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.
Third District voters liked Lloyd for several reasons: She largely voted on legislation the way they would have. She worked tremendously hard on constituent services, endearing herself to many an individual who needed her help. And she was kind, not strident and mean, the way voters increasingly see some representatives acting today in an effort to puff themselves up and prove their ideological bona fides.
She served on the House Science Committee during her tenure and variously on the Public Works Committee, Armed Services Committee and Select Committee on Aging but never failed to look out for Tennessee Valley Authority and Oak Ridge National Laboratory projects in her district.
Just before her retirement in 1995, she appeared on CSPAN with two other retiring House members to talk about their time in Washington, D.C. Her words on the U.S. Capitol and on Congress evinced her awe in the U.S. form of government and those who serve in it.
"This (the Capitol) is the greatest symbol of freedom in the history of civilization," she said. "And that's my perspective of the United States Congress. We have our faults because we're human beings, and I think former [House] Speaker Jim Wright put it well that 'we're ordinary people clothed with extraordinary responsibilities.'"
In the same interview, she described being in the House as a "seven-day-a-week, 18-hours-a-day job" but one that she had relished because of a commitment to public service and a love for people.
Lloyd may be long remembered for her history-making spot as a woman, but she deserves equal praise for her diligence, her grit and her grace.