Jean Louise Lennox Wilson (June 13, 1928 – January 27, 2014) was a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

member of the

Pennsylvania House of Representatives The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts. It ...

. Elected in 1988, after placing her name on the ballot following the death of her husband,

Benjamin H. Wilson Benjamin H. Wilson (January 25, 1925 – March 6, 1988) was a Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the le ...

, an eleven-term member of the Pennsylvania House who had died nine months before that year's election, she represented the 144th District.

Formative years

Born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, Pennsylvania on June 13, 1928, as Jean Louise Lennox, she graduated from

Frankford High School Frankford High School is a public high school in the School District of Philadelphia. It is located at Oxford Avenue and Wakeling Street in the Frankford section of Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Frankford was founded in 1910 as an annex ...

in 1945, and earned a bachelor of science degree in education from

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

. She was married to

, a fellow Penn State graduate and realtor who became the tax collector for

Warminster Township, Pennsylvania Warminster Township (also referred to as Warminster) is located in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. It was formally established in 1711. The township is 13.7 miles north of Philadelphia and had a population of 32,682 according to the 201 ...

, in 1980 and then a member of the

Academic and business career

Following her graduation from Penn State, Wilson became an educator. She subsequently worked for two years as an executive secretary with Publicker Industries, and then as an office manager with Camden Fibre Mills for ten years.

Public service career

Appointed as the assistant tax collector for Warminster Township, she served in that capacity for ten years. A member of the Bucks County Council of Republican Women, she was elected as a Republican to the

for the 1989 and 1991 terms, but was not a candidate for reelection to the House for the 1993 term. During her tenure in the Pennsylvania House, she was pro-choice and an advocate for increased daycare services for children as a way to help working parents, but voted against a parental leave bill in September 1990, which was designed to give workers up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave per year for childbirth or medical emergencies, stating her belief that it would "hurt small businesses by mandating leaves."Hall, M. Floyd. "Incumbent, challenger seem to agree: Family leave bill only issue dividing 144th District foes," ''The Morning Call'', October 31, 1990. She also served on the boards of directors of the Bucks County Fox Chase Cancer Center and the VIA, Doylestown Hospital.

Death

Wilson died on January 27, 2014, in

Doylestown, Pennsylvania Doylestown is a borough and the county seat of Bucks County in Pennsylvania, United States. It is located northwest of Trenton, north of Center City, Philadelphia, southeast of Allentown, and southwest of New York City. As of the 2020 cen ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Jean Republican Party members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Women state legislators in Pennsylvania 2014 deaths 1928 births 21st-century American women