staunch advocate of the Equal Rights Amendment. In 1995, Iowa State University established the Mary Louise Smith Chair in Women and Politics in her honor, and numerous other awards and recognitions are named for her throughout the state. Smith died of lung cancer in Des Moines at the age of 82. A widow, she was survived by three children. Further reading O'Dea, Suzanne. Madame Chairman: Mary Louise Smith and the Republican Revival After Watergate (University of Missouri Press; 2012) 216 pages; scholarly biography References External links ISU Mary Louise Smith Chair in Women and Politics Mary Louise Smith Papers at the Iowa Women's Archives, University of Iowa 1914 births 1997 deaths Deaths from lung cancer in Iowa Iowa Republicans People from Eagle Grove, Iowa People from Eddyville, Iowa Republican National Committee chairs University of Iowa alumni Women in Iowa politics 20th-century American women