U.S. Senator. A Republican elected in the Reagan landslide of 1980, she represented Florida for one term. Raised in Salt Lake City, she attended Utah State University, and worked as a model, prior to her 1955 marriage to engineer Gene Hawkins. Relocating to Florida, she was elected to the state Public Service Commission in 1972, and again in 1976, becoming a strong consumer advocate. Mrs. Hawkins ran for the United States Senate in 1980 describing herself as "feminine, not feminist", and became the first woman elected to a full term in the Senate without following a husband or father into politics, and the first to take her husband to Washington. In accordance with her Mormon religious beliefs, she opposed abortion, and the Equal Rights Amendment, and thus became a frequent and major target of the National Organization for Women (NOW). Injured by a television studio accident in 1982, she was afflicted with neck and shoulder problems for the rest of her life; still, she sponsored the Missing Children's Act of 1982, which requires the FBI to maintain a national database. (In the course of her bill's ratification, Mrs. Hawkins disclosed that she herself had been a child molestation victim). Limited by surgery and lingering orthopedic problems, she was unable to campaign effectively in 1986, and lost to Bob Graham. Mrs. Hawkins joined boards of Philip Crosby Associates in 1988 and Nu Skin Enterprises in 1997. In her final years, she suffered a stroke, and other medical concerns, and was confined to a wheelchair. Putting her opposition to abortion into perspective, she said: "I think it has emasculated the man to say this is a women's-only issue".
U.S. Senator. A Republican elected in the Reagan landslide of 1980, she represented Florida for one term. Raised in Salt Lake City, she attended Utah State University, and worked as a model, prior to her 1955 marriage to engineer Gene Hawkins. Relocating to Florida, she was elected to the state Public Service Commission in 1972, and again in 1976, becoming a strong consumer advocate. Mrs. Hawkins ran for the United States Senate in 1980 describing herself as "feminine, not feminist", and became the first woman elected to a full term in the Senate without following a husband or father into politics, and the first to take her husband to Washington. In accordance with her Mormon religious beliefs, she opposed abortion, and the Equal Rights Amendment, and thus became a frequent and major target of the National Organization for Women (NOW). Injured by a television studio accident in 1982, she was afflicted with neck and shoulder problems for the rest of her life; still, she sponsored the Missing Children's Act of 1982, which requires the FBI to maintain a national database. (In the course of her bill's ratification, Mrs. Hawkins disclosed that she herself had been a child molestation victim). Limited by surgery and lingering orthopedic problems, she was unable to campaign effectively in 1986, and lost to Bob Graham. Mrs. Hawkins joined boards of Philip Crosby Associates in 1988 and Nu Skin Enterprises in 1997. In her final years, she suffered a stroke, and other medical concerns, and was confined to a wheelchair. Putting her opposition to abortion into perspective, she said: "I think it has emasculated the man to say this is a women's-only issue".
Bio by: Bob Hufford
Inscription
On the bench in front of the monument:
HAVE I DONE ANY GOOD IN THE WORLD TODAY?
HAVE I HELPED ANYONE IN NEED?
HAVE I CHEERED UP THE SAD AND MADE SOMEONE FEEL
GLAD? IF NOT, I HAVE FAILED INDEED.
Family Members
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