India Edwards

India Edwards (June 16, 1895 – January 14, 1990) was a United States Democratic politician and Vice Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. She was an advocate for women in politics. She died at the age of 94 in Sebastopol, California. Her memoirs, Pulling No Punches, were published by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1977.

India was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1895, to John A. and India H. (Thomas) Gillespie and grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. She married for the first time in 1917 to Daniel Sharp, who died a year later in World War I. She married, secondly, in 1920, to investment banker Jack Moffet and had two children (John Holbrook Moffett, who died during WWII, and India Moffett Williams). Edwards started her career as a Chicago Tribune journalist and was society editor from 1918–36 and women's page editor from 1936-42. Edwards and Moffet divorced in 1937. In 1952, she married her third husband, Herbert T. Edwards, who was employed by the State Department. She left the Tribune, and the couple moved to Washington, D.C..

Edwards' formal involvement with the Democratic Party began with her work as a volunteer during the 1944 Presidential election. She later occupied increasingly important position in the women's division of the party, serving first as executive secretary (1945–47), associate director (1947–48) and finally executive director (1948–53). In 1953, the women's division was integrated into the DNC; she was succeeded by Katie Louchheim. In 1950, Edwards was unanimously elected to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and occupied the vice-chair position from 1950 to 1956. Still, Edwards remained active in the Democratic Party politics for over thirty years throughout the careers of such politicians as Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

...
Wikipedia