Karen Shepherd
| Karen F. Shepherd | |
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Utah's 2nd district |
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In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 1995 |
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| Preceded by | Wayne Owens |
| Succeeded by | Enid Greene |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
July 5, 1940 Silver City, New Mexico |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Vincent Shepherd |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater |
University of Utah Brigham Young University |
Karen Shepherd (born July 5, 1940) served in the United States House of Representatives from 1993 to 1995.
Shepherd was born in Silver City, New Mexico, where her father, Ralph Felker, worked for the U.S. Forest Service. The family soon moved to southern Utah and lived in many small towns throughout Shepherd’s childhood as the Department of Agriculture transferred them from place to place until they settled in Provo where she went to high school. Shepherd earned a B. A. in English from the University of Utah in 1962 and went on to get an M.A in British Literature from Brigham Young University (BYU) 1963.
In 1963 Shepherd married Vincent Shepherd and they moved to Fort Lewis, Washington, where he was an officer in the Army. In Washington, she taught English at Olympic Junior College. Upon her husband’s discharge from the Army, the couple both accepted positions at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, where they lived for two years.
Returning to the U.S and resettling in Utah, the Shepherds had two children, Heather and Dylan. Vincent owned and operated a wholesale oil distributing company and Karen taught Freshman English at Brigham Young University. Shepherd became politically active with the Democratic Party, working for the Senate campaigns of both Wayne Owens and Frank Moss. Shepherd was the first woman ever to serve at cabinet level in Salt Lake County Government when she became Director of Social Services. In 1978, she became co-owner of Network Magazine, which focused on women’s workplace issues, and she soon founded a publishing business, Webster Publishing. In 1988 she sold the business and the magazine and became the Director of Development at the University of Utah’s School of Business. In 1990 Shepherd was elected to the Utah State Senate, taking the place of Frances Farley, who had been at that time the only woman serving in the Utah Senate. She served in the Utah Legislature two years before announcing that she would run to succeed the four-term Democratic incumbent, U.S. Representative Wayne Owens for his seat, after he announced he would not seek re-election but would, instead, run for the U.S. Senate.
Karen Shepherd’s 1992 campaign platform led with a balanced budget, and support for government involvement in health care reform, education, abortion, and the environment. She put forward a 10-point plan for improving children’s lives that included tracking down delinquent fathers and fully funding Head Start. In the general election she ran against Enid Greene who had been an aide to Utah Governor Norman Bangerter and was a fiscal and social conservative who opposed all of her positions. In a presidential election year when Bill Clinton received only 25 percent of the votes in Utah, Shepherd still managed to win her race by a narrow 50 percent to 47 percent margin becoming the second woman in Utah’s history to be elected to Congress.
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Wikipedia