Sala Burton

She was born Sala Galante into a Jewish family in Białystok, Poland. The family immigrated in 1939 before the German invasion of Poland to the US, and she attended public schools in San Francisco and then the University of San Francisco.

She was the associate director of the California Public Affairs Institute from 1948 to 1950. She was the vice president of the California Democratic Council from 1951 to 1954. She served as president of the San Francisco Democratic Women's Forum from 1957 to 1959.

Burton served as a delegate to Democratic National Conventions, 1956, 1976, 1980, and 1984. She was elected as a Democrat to the 98th Congress by special election to fill the vacancy caused by the death of her husband, United States Representative Phillip Burton. She was reelected to the two succeeding Congress terms. She was succeeded by future speaker, Nancy Pelosi.

Galante met her future husband Phillip Burton at a California Young Democrats convention in 1950. They were married from 1953 until Phillip Burton's death in 1983. They raised a daughter, Joy, from Galante's previous marriage to Irving Lipschultz that ended in divorce.[1] Phillip & Sala Burton High School, on the site of the former Woodrow Wilson High School in San Francisco, is named after the couple.

She died from colon cancer on February 1, 1987, in Washington, D.C., and was buried in the Presidio of San Francisco.

• List of Jewish members of the United States Congress
• List of United States Congress members who died in office (1950–99)
• Women in the United States House of Representatives

• United States Congress. "Sala Burton (id: B001158)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Appearances on C-SPAN