Dorothy McCullough Lee (April 1, 1901 – February 19, 1981) was an American politician and attorney in the U.S. state of

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. She was the first female mayor of

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

; she also served on the

Oregon Legislative Assembly The Oregon Legislative Assembly is the state legislature for the U.S. state of Oregon. The Legislative Assembly is bicameral, consisting of an upper and lower house: the Senate, whose 30 members are elected to serve four-year terms; and the Ho ...

, on the Multnomah County Commission, and on the

United States Parole Commission The United States Parole Commission is the parole board responsible for granting or denying parole to, and supervising the parole releases of, incarcerated individuals who fall under its jurisdiction. It is part of the United States Department of Ju ...

Early life

Dorothy McCullough was born in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, on April 1, 1901. She was the only child of Flora (née Hill) and Frank E. McCullough, who became a

rear admiral Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarde ...

in World War I. Her early life involved a great deal of travel, including Hawaii, the Philippines, Japan, China, Guam, and much of Europe. When her father was stationed in Washington, D.C., as assistant surgeon general, she sneaked out at night to listen intently to the suffrage debates in Congress. Her formal education was limited until she entered Rogers High School in

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...

, where she graduated at age 16. She was determined to become an attorney (against her parents' wishes). She earned a B.A. during her pre-law education from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, in the spring of 1921 and a J.D. degree at the same institution in June 1923. She was admitted to the

State Bar of California The State Bar of California is California's official attorney licensing agency. It is responsible for managing the admission of lawyers to the practice of law, investigating complaints of professional misconduct, prescribing appropriate disciplin ...

in January 1923 and practiced law in San Francisco until July 1924. She married William Scott Lee on June 11, 1924, and moved to Portland, Oregon, where her husband, a chemical engineer, became an executive for the

Standard Oil Company Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...

. McCullough Lee was admitted to the

Oregon State Bar The Oregon State Bar Association (OSBA) is a public corporation and instrumentality of the Oregon Judicial Department in the U.S. state of Oregon. Founded in 1890 as the private Oregon Bar Association, it became a public entity in 1935 that regulat ...

in October 1924 and began a small private legal practice in December. In 1931, she and Gladys M. Everett created Oregon's first all-woman law firm, opening their firm in Portland's Failing Building.

Oregon political career

Dorothy McCullough Lee was a representative in the

Oregon House of Representatives The Oregon House of Representatives is the lower house of the Oregon Legislative Assembly. There are 60 members of the House, representing 60 districts across the state, each with a population of 65,000. The House meets in the west wing of the ...

for two terms from 1929-1931. She was appointed by the

Multnomah County Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland–Vancouver– Hillsboro, OR–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Thou ...

Commission to a vacated seat, and then won a seat in the

Oregon Senate The Oregon State Senate is the upper house of the statewide legislature for the US state of Oregon. Along with the lower chamber Oregon House of Representatives it makes up the Oregon Legislative Assembly. There are 30 members of the state Sena ...

, where she served from 1932 to 1943. Lee resigned from the Oregon Senate to assume the vacant city council seat of Clark D. Van Fleet, appointed to her by Mayor Earl Riley (on the recommendation of the man who became her most consistent opponent, commissioner Fred. L. Peterson). She vacated her law practice, then in the American Bank Building, to devote her full attention to city business. She became the first woman on the Portland City Council and was the commissioner of public utilities. In office, she extended city water, modernized the traction system (battles with the Portland Traction Company earned her the nickname "Dauntless Dottie"), and applied

United States Department of War The United States Department of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, a ...

methods, including the loan of a U.S. Army bomber, to effectively control mosquitoes. She won an election for her city council seat in 1944. The city council rotated the president of the council position when the mayor was out of town. She became, technically, the first female mayor on January 16, 1946, when Mayor Riley was out of town. After a scandal in the mayor’s office involving Earl Riley and police officers and bribery, Lee was petitioned to run for office. She ran for and won a term as mayor, defeating seven candidates, including Riley, in a landslide primary election, receiving 85,045 votes to Riley's 22,510. She said, "The forces of evil are pretty deep-seated in this city" and promised to "clean up sin, gambling, and prostitution". She was sworn in on January 1, 1949. She was the second woman to serve as mayor of a major U.S. city. Bertha Knight Landes had served as mayor of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

from 1926 to 1928. She started her term of office by shaking up the administration of the police department. She forced the removal of

slot machine A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...

s from

American Legion The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is a non-profit organization of U.S. war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militi ...

, Eagles, and Shrine facilities and even the prestigious

Multnomah Athletic Club The Multnomah Athletic Club is a Social club, private social and Sports club, athletic club in Portland, Oregon, United States. Located in the Goose Hollow, Portland, Oregon, Goose Hollow neighborhood, it was originally founded in 1891 as the M ...

. She reorganized the police department, ferreting out corruption and enforced city ordinances against vice. Her administration instituted one-way traffic patterns in the downtown and revitalized the Housing Authority of Portland. She promoted an ordinance that passed unanimously prohibiting anyone from being excluded in a public place in Portland. She survived a recall effort in October 1949 and derision in the press (she was called "No Sin Lee" after closing the Chinese gambling establishments), but her anti-gambling stance likely cost her a second mayoral term.

Later career

Lee was appointed to the U.S. Board of Parole by President

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

on August 7, 1953. She was appointed to the

Subversive Activities Control Board The Subversive Activities Control Board (SACB) was a United States government committee to investigate Communist infiltration of American society during the 1950s Red Scare. It was the subject of a landmark United States Supreme Court decision of th ...

on September 4, 1956, and appointed chairman on January 2, 1957 (her new position becoming effective January 21). While serving in this role, she called for more women to seek employment in public affairs. She resigned this position in August 1962 to resume her law practice and to serve as a lecturer at

Portland State University Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the following two decades ...

and the

University of Portland , mottoeng = The truth will set you free , established = 1901 , type = Private university , religious_affiliation = Catholic (Congregation of Holy Cross) , endowment = $218 million , president = Robert D. Kelly , students = 3,731 (fall 20 ...

Awards

Western Airlines Western Airlines was a major airline based in California, operating in the Western United States including Alaska and Hawaii, and western Canada, as well as to New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Miami and to Mexico City, London and N ...

honored her first anniversary as mayor by naming a new Convair CV-240 airliner, ''The Dorothy McCullough Lee''. The Woman's National Press Club selected her as one of the nation’s six most distinguished women in April 1949. She was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree from Mills College in Oakland in June 1949.

Personal life

Lee had two children, adopted as infants, David Scott Lee (born July 4, 1936, and received by the Lees five days later) and Priscilla Dorothy Lee (born October 30, 1937). Her husband, William Scott Lee, an oil company sales representative, died on February 6, 1976.

Death

Early in 1981, Dorothy McCullough Lee suffered a heart attack. On February 19, 1981, she died at Park View Nursing Home. She is buried in Portland's River View Cemetery in the McCullough family plot beside her parents and her husband.

Archival papers and unpublished biography

The papers of Dorothy McCullough Lee are housed at

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...

, in the

Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America is a research library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University. According to Nancy F. Cott, the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director, ...

. The

Oregon Historical Society The Oregon Historical Society (OHS) is an organization that encourages and promotes the study and understanding of the history of the Oregon Country, within the broader context of U.S. history. Incorporated in 1898, the Society collects, preser ...

includes an untitled biography of Dorothy McCullough Lee written by her husband William Scott Lee.Dorothy McCullough Lee Collection
Mss 2772
, Oregon Historical Society Research Library

Footnotes

External links

Dorothy McCullough Lee: A Woman of FirstsPapers, 1905-1963 (inclusive), 1928-1963 (bulk).Schlesinger Library
Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Dorothy McCullough 1901 births 1981 deaths Women mayors of places in Oregon Republican Party members of the Oregon House of Representatives Republican Party Oregon state senators Women state legislators in Oregon Portland City Council members (Oregon) Mayors of Portland, Oregon Politicians from Oakland, California Oregon lawyers 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American legislators 20th-century American women politicians Women city councillors in Oregon