would have limited her ministerial capabilities and that there was intense competition for cabinet positions following the Coalition's landslide victory. Lyons was sworn in to office with the fourth Menzies Ministry on 19 December 1949, the first woman to serve in cabinet. She continued to suffer from poor health, requiring another surgery in 1950 for an ulcer on her nose that developed into skin cancer, and also experiencing side-effects from her thyroid medication. Her contribution to cabinet discussions was limited, although she successfully lobbied for a woman to be appointed to the organising committee for the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. She was "disturbed" by cabinet's decision to commit Australian troops to the Korean War. Lyons resigned from cabinet for health reasons on 7 March 1951. Menzies called a double dissolution shortly thereafter and she declined to re-contest her seat at the 1951 election, bringing an end to her parliamentary career. Later life and legacy In retirement, Dame Enid's health recovered. She was a newspaper columnist (1951–54), a commissioner of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (1951–62), and remained active in public life promoting family and women's issues. She published three volumes of memoirs, which embarrassed the Liberal Party by reviving her complaints about Menzies' 1939 behaviour towards her husband. Lyons was made a Dame of the Order of Australia (AD) on Australia Day 1980, the second woman to receive this honour after Alexandra Hasluck. She was the first Australian woman to receive damehoods in different orders. Lyons died at Ulverstone on 2 September 1981, aged 84. She was accorded a state funeral in Devonport before being buried next to her husband at Mersey Vale Memorial Park. Legacy Jo Gullett in his autobiography discussed his fellow members of parliament and concluded that, "with hindsight, perhaps the wisest and most far-sighted of them all was a woman, Dame Enid Lyons." An informal political faction of the Liberal/National opposition parties called the Lyons Forum was formed in 1992. The group's name alluded to Lyons' maiden speech to the House of Representatives. The faction was considered to be defunct in 2004. Children Lyons first fell pregnant a few months after her marriage, but miscarried just after her 18th birthday. She suffered a second miscarriage the following year, and in her memoirs recounted having to watch on as a nurse threw the remains of the foetus into a bedside fireplace. She was told by doctors that