Paula Hawkins
| Paula Hawkins | |
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United States Senator from Florida |
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In office January 1, 1981 – January 3, 1987 |
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| Preceded by | Richard Stone |
| Succeeded by | Bob Graham |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Paula Fickes January 24, 1927 Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. |
| Died | December 4, 2009 (aged 82) Winter Park, Florida, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Gene Hawkins |
| Children | Genean Kevin Kelly Ann |
| Alma mater | Utah State University, Logan |
| Religion | Mormonism |
Paula Fickes Hawkins (January 24, 1927 – December 4, 2009) was an American politician from Florida. To date, she is the only woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Florida. She was the first woman ever elected to the Senate from the South and the first in the country ever elected to a full Senate term without a family connection.
Hawkins was the eldest of three children born to Paul and Leone Fickes in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her father was Naval Chief Warrant Officer. In 1934, the family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where her father taught at Georgia Tech. Her parents split when Paula was in high school, and Leone and the children returned to Utah. She finished high school at Richmond, Utah in 1944, then enrolled at Utah State University. Paula was hired to be the Athletic director's secretary and met her future husband. On September 5, 1947, Paula Fickes and Walter Eugene Hawkins were married and moved to Atlanta. Gene earned a degree in electrical engineering and eventually opened his own business. The couple had three children before moving in 1955 to Winter Park, Florida, where Paula became a community activist and Republican volunteer.
In 1971, Hawkins was the Florida Republican National Committeewoman. She and three Republican members of the state's U.S. House delegation, J. Herbert Burke, Louis Frey, Jr., and C.W. "Bill" Young, prepared a letter to the Nixon White House asking that William C. Cramer, a former representative defeated by Lawton Chiles in the 1970 U.S. Senate election be the Florida patronage advisor, rather than sitting U.S. Senator Edward Gurney. The letter forced Gurney to initiate "peace meetings" with his intraparty rivals, and the letter was never mailed.
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