Former 1st District Congresswoman Leaves Legacy Details
Former U.S Representative Elizabeth Furse passed away Sunday, April 18th due to complications from a fall. She was 84. Furse represented the 1st Congressional District, which includes the Northern Oregon coast, from 1993 until succeeded by David WU in 1999. She was a Democrat and was the first naturalized U.S. Citizen born in Africa to win an election to the United States Congress. Elizabeth Furse was born a British subject in Nairobi, Kenya, on October 13, 1936. Her grandmother, Dame Katherine Furse, established the Women’s Royal Naval Service (the “Wrens”) during World War I. Her father was a naval lieutenant who later settled in the then-British colony of Kenya as a coffee planter. The family moved to South Africa, where Furse’s mother established an anti-apartheid women’s group, “Black Sash.” Elizabeth Furse marched with the group at the age of 15. In 1955 she left South Africa to live in London, where she met and married an American doctor. They moved to Los Angeles, and Furse became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1972.