Washington Through a Purple Veil: Memoirs of a Southern Woman

This memoir is a great account of the author's life up to 1994, and since then she has been ambassador to the Vatican and I hope she does a sequel. Her husband, Hale Boggs, was elected to House from Louisiana in 1940 and served till he was lost in an air crash in Alaska in 1972. Lindy ran for his seat the next year and won election and served till she voluntarily retired from Congress in 1990, ending her service on Jan 3, 1991. Her account of her public and family life is well-told and never boring. It is like a historical account of the political life of this country during the fifty years involved. This book is a winner, as far as memoirs of Congress goes. Another book in this genre, which I enjoyed, though it is of a different era, is: Washington Wife: Journal of Ellen Maury Slayden from 1897-1919, which I read on 21 Aug 1976.

Lindy Boggs could have written at least five or more books, or one for each administration in which she served; there is so much history in this volume and much interesting material was only briefly mentioned. I enjoyed her lively account and admired her spunk.