Anna Belle Clement O'Brien (May 6, 1923 – August 31, 2009) was a Tennessee politician, nicknamed "the first lady of Tennessee politics." She served as the governor's chief of staff from 1963 to 1967, was a member of the

Tennessee House of Representatives The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee. Constitutional requirements According to the state constitution of 1870, this body is to consis ...

in the 89th

General Assembly A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company. Specific examples of general assembly include: Churches * General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of presby ...

, from 1975 to 1977, and a

Tennessee State Senator The Tennessee Senate is the upper house of the U.S. state of Tennessee , Tennessee's state legislature, which is known formally as the Tennessee General Assembly. The Tennessee Senate has the power to pass resolutions concerning essentially any ...

in the 90th to 96th General Assemblies, from 1977 to 1991. While she was not the first woman ever to be in the Tennessee Senate, she was the first woman ever to be a chairman of a committee (as enacted in her tenure). Senator Mildred Jolly Lashlee was Chair of the Public Utilities Committee 1945-1947 which was absorbed into Energy & Natural Resources Committee during Senator O'Brien's tenure. During her 22 years in the General Assembly, she was the chairperson for three committees: Education, Transportation, and the Democratic Caucus.

Personal life

Anna Belle Clement was the daughter of Dickson, Tennessee attorney and mayor Robert S. Clement and Maybelle Goad Clement. Her brother,

Frank G. Clement Frank Goad Clement (June 2, 1920 – November 4, 1969) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 41st Governor of Tennessee from 1953 to 1959 and from 1963 to 1967. Inaugurated for the first time at age 32, he was the state's younge ...

, was

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

from 1953 to 1959 and again from 1963 to 1967. During his second governorship she served as his chief of staff. She married twice. Her first marriage was to A. W. Lucas, who served as mayor of New Johnsonville, Tennessee.Chas Sisk
In 'man's world,' Anna Belle Clement O'Brien was political pioneer
The Tennessean, September 2, 2009 In 1966 she married Charles H. O'Brien, who was a Tennessee State Senator at the time of their marriage and who later became Chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court. They had been married 40 years at the time of his death in January 2007.

Career in elective politics

Anna Belle and Charles O'Brien made their home in Crossville, which area Anna Belle represented in the General Assembly, winning her first election in 1974. Her campaign slogan when she ran for the State Senate in 1976 was: "A woman's place is in the House … and the Senate too!" In 1982 she was a candidate for the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

nomination for governor, but lost in the

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Works * ...

to Knoxville

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

Randy Tyree Randell "Randy" Tyree (born 1940) is a Tennessee politician who served as mayor of Knoxville from 1976 to 1983 and was the Democratic candidate for Governor in 1982. Biography Tyree was born in Carthage, Tennessee, in 1940. He received a bachel ...

, who lost in the general

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

to Republican governor Lamar Alexander. In the 1980s, O'Brien was diagnosed with

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a re ...

, underwent a mastectomy, and received a silicone implant. Subsequently, she worked to enact legislation to require health insurers to provide coverage for

mammogram Mammography (also called mastography) is the process of using low-energy X-rays (usually around 30 kVp) to examine the human breast for diagnosis and screening. The goal of mammography is the early detection of breast cancer, typically through d ...

s and later cosponsored a bill to expand women's rights to sue over defective breast implants by extending the statute of limitations for product liability

lawsuit - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...

s for implants.

Death

O'Brien died August 31, 2009, at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville after suffering a fall two weeks earlier at her home in Crossville.Associated Press
Former Tenn. state Sen. Annabelle Clement O'Brien dies 2 weeks after fall at her home
September 1, 2009

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, Anna Belle Clement 1923 births 2009 deaths Democratic Party Tennessee state senators Democratic Party members of the Tennessee House of Representatives People from Crossville, Tennessee People from Dickson, Tennessee Women state legislators in Tennessee 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American women politicians Candidates in the 1982 United States elections Accidental deaths from falls Accidental deaths in Tennessee 21st-century American women

Personal life

Career in elective politics

Death

See also

References

External links