Elizabeth Susan Nelson VanLeeuwen ( Nelson; November 5, 1925 – November 27, 2022) was an American politician who was a member of 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 ...

Early life and career

VanLeeuwen was born in

Lakeview, Oregon Lakeview is a town in Lake County, Oregon, United States. The population was 2,418 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Lake County. The city bills itself as the "Tallest Town in Oregon" because of its elevation, above sea level. Lak ...

, where she lived until attending

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

. She received a Bachelor of Science in Home Making Education and a minor in English in 1947. She married George VanLeeuwen on June 15, 1947, and was a farmer. She also was a news reporter and

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

for a newspaper in Brownsville, Oregon, from 1949 to 1970. She was a school teacher at Monroe High School, a substitute teacher and an adult educator in the 1950s and 1960s. She had a weekly farm report radio program on KWIL in the 1970s. VanLeeuwen was a founding member of Oregon Women for Agriculture and a member of the Oregon Farm Bureau Women's Committee and Legislative Committee before being elected to the Oregon House of Representatives.

Political career

VanLeeuwen served as a member of the Oregon House of Representatives from 1981 to 1999. In 1999, she was elected to the Linn County Soil and Water Conservation board and held a position there. In 2002, VanLeeuwen ran for Oregon's 4th congressional district against

Peter DeFazio Peter Anthony DeFazio (; born May 27, 1947) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for , serving since 1987. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes Eugene, Springfield, Corvallis, Roseburg, Coos Bay ...

(D). She lost 64% to 34%.

Personal life and death

VanLeeuwen and her husband George lived in

Halsey, Oregon Halsey is a city in Linn County, Oregon, Linn County, Oregon, United States. The population was 904 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. History The city was founded in 1872, and legally incorporated by the Oregon Legislative Assembly on ...

, and had four children. She died there on November 27, 2022, at the age of 97.

References

1925 births 2022 deaths Republican Party members of the Oregon House of Representatives People from Lakeview, Oregon People from Halsey, Oregon Oregon State University alumni Journalists from Oregon Women state legislators in Oregon People from Brownsville, Oregon 21st-century American women {{Oregon-politician-stub