Mae Nolan, Florence Kahn, and Mary Teresa Norton. Like all but Norton, Rogers was a Republican, and like them all she was a member of the House of Representatives; Hattie Wyatt Caraway would become the first woman elected to the Senate in 1932. Rogers was also the first woman elected to Congress from New England, and the second from an Eastern state after Norton, who was from New Jersey. After her election to the 69th Congress, Rogers was reelected to the 70th, 71st, 72nd, 73rd, 74th, 75th, 76th, 77th, 78th, 79th, 80th, 81st, 82nd, 83rd, 84th, 85th, and 86th Congresses. She continued to win with strong majorities, serving a total of 35 years and 18 consecutive terms, until her death on September 10, 1960. She was considered a formidable candidate for U.S. Senate in 1958 against the much younger John F. Kennedy, but decided not to run. This was the longest tenure of any woman elected to the United States Congress, until surpassed by Barbara Mikulski in 2012. Like her husband, she served on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and also on the Civil Service Committee and the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. She chaired the Committee on Veterans' Affairs from 1947 to 1948 and again from 1953 to 1954, during the 80th and 83rd Congresses. She was also the first woman to preside as Speaker pro tempore over the House of Representatives. On the afternoon of December 13, 1932, Marlin Kemmerer perched on the gallery railing of the U.S. House of Representatives, waved a pistol, and demanded the right to speak. As other representatives fled in panic, Reps. Rogers and Melvin Maas (R-MN) approached the would-be gunman. Rogers had counseled shell-shocked veterans at Walter Reed Hospital; she looked up at Kemmerer and told the troubled young man, "You won't do anything." Maas, a Marine in WW I, stood next to Rogers and asked Kemmerer to throw down his pistol. When he did so, he was apprehended by Congressman (R – NY, and future mayor of New York City) Fiorello H. La Guardia and an off-duty D.C. police officer. Kemmerer was released a month later at the request of House members. Legislator Rogers was regarded as capable by her male peers and became a model for younger Congresswomen. Her trademark was an orchid or a gardenia on her shoulder. She was also an active legislator and sponsored more than 1,200 bills, over