Lynn Morley Martin

Martin was born in Evanston, Illinois, the daughter of Helen Catherine (Hall) and Lawrence William Morley, an accountant.[1] She attended Taft High School in Chicago from 1952 to 1956. She was later named to Taft's Hall of Fame. In 1960 she graduated from the University of Illinois, where she was a member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority. After becoming a teacher in the Rockford Public School District, she continued in that job after being elected to public office, serving as a member of the Winnebago County board from 1972 to 1976[2] before being elected to the Illinois House of Representatives (1977–79), Illinois Senate (1979–80), and U.S. House of Representatives (1981–91). In the U.S. House, she was vice chair of the House Republican Conference.[3]

A loyalist to the Reagan Administration, she assisted then-Vice President George H.W. Bush with his preparation for the 1984 Vice Presidential debate against Geraldine Ferraro. Bush touted her as a possible running mate in his 1988 presidential campaign, though he eventually selected Indiana Senator Dan Quayle.

Martin's official U.S. Department of Labor portrait, by artist Peter Egeli

Martin ran for the U.S. Senate in 1990 against Democratic incumbent Paul Simon. She was considered a formidable challenger, but her campaign floundered — in ads, Martin poked fun at Simon's signature bow tie, but the humorous ad campaign was seen by some as petty and mean-spirited. Simon's popularity proved too much to overcome, and he won with 65 percent of the vote, carrying all but two counties in the state; Edwards County in the southeast and McHenry County outside Chicago, in the heart of the district Martin represented for most of the 1980s.

George H.W. Bush tapped Martin to be U.S. Secretary of Labor in his Cabinet when Elizabeth Dole resigned to become president of the American Red Cross.

From 1993 to 1999, Martin was a professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and chair of the Council for the Advancement of Women and advisor to the firm of Deloitte & Touche LLP, for Deloitte's internal human resources and minority advancement matters. Martin also served together with British politician Shirley Williams (Baroness Williams of Crosby) as a U.N. Special Representative to the Former Yugoslavia during the Yugoslav Wars.

In 1995, she tested the waters to run for the 1996 Republican presidential nomination, but decided against it after concluding there was insufficient support for her candidacy. She participated in a Republican primary debate in New Hampshire on local television.[4] Arguably, she would have been the most viable woman to run for the Republican presidential nomination in history to that date.[5]

Martin has been a director on the boards of AT&T Corporation, Ryder System Inc., Dreyfus Funds, Constellation Energy Group and Procter & Gamble. She served as chairman of the board of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.

She is briefly mentioned in The Loudest Voice for her connection to future Fox News executive Roger Ailes.

Lynn Morley Martin was inducted as a laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the State's highest honor) by Illinois Governor George Ryan in 2000 in the area of religion.[6]

• List of female United States Cabinet Secretaries
• Women in the United States House of Representatives

• United States Congress. "Lynn Morley Martin (id: M000195)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Appearances on C-SPAN