A U.S. congresswoman from Oregon from 1954 to 1974, Edith Starrett Green (1910-1987) worked vigorously for improved education and educational opportunity and for women's rights.

Edith Starrett Green was born January 17, 1910, in Trent, South Dakota, to James and Julia Starrett, who soon moved to Oregon. By 1930 she began a teaching career which was interrupted when she married businessman Arthur N. Green and had a family.

Although a daughter of two school teachers, Edith Starrett had preferred to be a lawyer or engineer. However, others persuaded her to pursue a more conventional woman's profession. She earned a Bachelor's degree from the University of Oregon in 1939 and did graduate work at Stanford University. In the 1940s she was a free-lance writer and radio commentator, but her interest in education continued and she served as a state lobbyist for education groups.

A life-long Democrat, she first ran for political office in 1952 and...