Elizabeth Ray (born Betty Lou Ray on May 14, 1943, in

Marshall, North Carolina Marshall is a town in Madison County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 872 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Madison County. Marshall is part of the Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area. History The Bank of Frenc ...

) is an American former beauty queen who was the central figure in a much-publicized sex scandal in 1976 that ended the career of

U.S. Rep. The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

Wayne Hays Wayne Levere Hays (May 13, 1911 – February 10, 1989) was an American politician who served as a U.S. Representative of Ohio, in the Democratic Party, from 1949 to 1976. He resigned from Congress after a much-publicized sex scandal. Early year ...

(D-Ohio). '' The Washington Post'' reported that Ray had been on the payroll of a committee run by Hays for two years as a clerk-secretary. During that time, she admitted, her actual job duties were providing Congressman Hays sexual favors: "I can't type, I can't file, I can't even answer the phone." Ray, who had won the title of Miss Virginia 1975 in a beauty contest, says she worked briefly as a stewardess, waitress and car rental clerk before beginning work on

Capitol Hill Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...

in the summer of 1972. Ray also admitted having sex with married

Sen. A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "th ...

Mike Gravel (D-Alaska) at his houseboat in August 1972. According to Ray, the meeting was arranged by Rep.

Kenneth J. Gray Kenneth James Gray (November 14, 1924 – July 12, 2014) was an American businessman and politician. He was a veteran of World War II, and represented Illinois in the United States House of Representatives from 1955 to 1974, and again from 1985 ...

(D-Illinois), her boss at the time, in exchange for Gravel's support of a bill Gray was pushing. Both Gravel and Gray denied the accusations and a federal investigation ended with no charges being filed. Decades later, Gravel admitted having sex with Ray, but continued to maintain that it was not in exchange for his vote. After the Hays scandal broke, she authored a book titled ''The Washington Fringe Benefit''. She later posed for '' Playboy'' several times and explored acting and stand-up comedy. However, these efforts did not develop into a career.IMDB
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References

1943 births Living people Employees of the United States House of Representatives Mistresses People from Marshall, North Carolina {{US-poli-bio-stub

See also

References