
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, February 6, 1995                   TAG: 9502080013
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

`PINKY' GIESEN

THE DEATH last week of Charlotte ``Pinky'' Giesen of Radford is a reminder of an earlier era when women were scarce in Virginia politics - and Republicans even scarcer.

In 1954, Giesen became the first woman to serve on Radford City Council. In 1957, she became the first Republican woman elected to the Virginia House of Delegates. At the time, only two other women sat in the General Assembly.

That year, Giesen was the only Republican elected anywhere in Virginia. The nominally Democratic organization of Harry F. Byrd ruled formidably.

Albertis S. Harrison, governor from 1962 to 1966, preceded Giesen in death by just a week. Though a Democrat, he and Giesen were linked by one of Virginia political history's most turbulent episodes. Giesen helped forge the legislative coalition that supported Harrison's break with the Byrd machine over its policy of massive resistance to public-school desegregation.

The Giesens were a political family, and still are. Pinky Giesen's son, Arthur ``Pete'' Giesen, is a veteran Republican member of the House of Delegates from the Staunton area. With the GOP today holding almost as many General Assembly seats as the Democrats, the younger Giesen's party affiliation is not the lonely thing it was for his mother.

And with 16 women in it, today's General Assembly is more representative than in Pinkie Giesen's day. But considering that this is 16 out of 140, the number of women in the legislature remains disproportionately few.

by CNB