Connecticut's Favorite Daughter

Ella T. Grasso, 1919-1981

She was a tough, deal-cutting, back-slapping politician, and at the same time a warm, disarmingly rumpled matron. During her 28 years in public life, Connecticut's Ella Grasso never lost an election. In an era when feminism was just beginning to dawn in the male preserve of politics, she became the first U.S. woman Governor ever elected in her own right (a few others followed their husbands). Admirers talked about Grasso as a future Vice President or Cabinet member, but she preferred Hartford to Washington. She kept a sign in her living room: BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED.

Just about everyone expected Grasso to finish her second term--and perhaps a third or fourth--but last April doctors discovered she had ovarian cancer. By December the disease had spread to her liver. Grasso valiantly ran the state government from her hospital room for weeks, finally resigning on New Year's Eve. After slipping in and out of a coma several times, she died last week at the age of 61.

Lieutenant Governor William O'Neill, 50, was sworn in as Grasso's successor. A former state legislator and house majority leader, O'Neill will finish the two years left in her term. He is expected to continue Grasso policies, including a commitment to avoid levying a state income tax. He is known more for skills at behind-the-scenes compromise than for the high-profile leadership of his predecessor. Ella Grasso, Connecticut's favorite daughter, will be a hard act to follow.

Born in the mill town of Windsor Locks just outside Hartford, Ella Tambussi was the only child of Italian immigrants. She won a scholarship to the elite Chaffee School, and her father worked 14-hour shifts in a bakery to pay for her books. Another scholarship took her to Massachusetts' Mount Holyoke College, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1940. After earning a master's degree in economics and sociology, she became a protegee of John Bailey, longtime boss of the Connecticut Democratic organization.

She married a schoolteacher, Thomas Grasso, had two children and, in 1952, won a seat in the state legislature, where she served two terms. Elected Connecticut's secretary of state in 1958 she turned her office into a "people's lobby" where voters could come with problems. Along the way she became active in the Democratic National Committee, especially after Bailey became chairman in 1961, and was instrumental in pushing through a minority report at the 1968 Chicago convention opposing U.S. involvement in Viet Nam. Two years later she ran successfully for Congress and was re-elected in 1972.

During Grasso's years in Congress, some feminists criticized her ambivalence on such issues as day care and abortion. Indeed, Grasso was always a reluctant feminist. Yet so solid was her reputation as a politician that when she ran for Governor in 1974, sex was not an issue, aside from a few snide remarks about a "Governess." The state was ready, in Grasso's words, for "somebody with determination who wants to work and does not want to put up with all the trappings of office." She won in a landslide.

When Grasso discovered that retiring Governor Thomas Meskill had left behind a $70 million deficit, she took a number of unpopular measures: proposing to increase state work hours from 35 to 40 hours a week, laying off 500 state workers, raising the state sales tax. She was no easier on herself, refusing a $7,000 salary increase, selling the state airplane and limousines and turning any fees for speaking engagements over to the state. Two years into her term, Connecticut showed a $34 million surplus.

Grasso's spending cutbacks alienated many supporters. In 1978, with her popularity at an alltime low, the state was virtually paralyzed by a blizzard. Grasso promptly set up a command post in the state armory and directed around-the-clock emergency operations. When she flew by helicopter to a remote part of the state, there below her, tramped out in large letters in the snow, was a message: ELLA HELP. As the economy picked up in the spring, so did Grasso's popularity. On Election Day 1978, she won more than 75% of the state's 169 towns. Her legacy, however, is not just accessible government and a balanced budget. As her husband once said, "Ella is a pioneer. If she succeeds, she makes it easier for thousands of women in future generations."

Succeed she did. qed

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