Sworn In as Commissioner, She Says, “I’m No Women’s Libber”
Ann Heuer’s neighbors and friends are there for the ceremony, along with two of her four children. Says her husband,. “As they say, darling, there goes your golf game.”
The Washington Evening Star, Early 1970s: Brigid Flanigan, Frances Smoak, Dorothy Marks, Scooter Miller, Eulah Oliver, the present and two past chairmen of the D.C. City Council, John Nevis, Gilbert Hahn and John Hechinger, and several other of Ann Foster Heuer’s neighbors and friends were on hand yesterday afternoon to see her sworn in as a member of the National Capital Planning Commission.
“I’m so glad to see someone sworn in rather than sworn at,” said the wife of attorney Leonard Marks. She also noted that she and Mrs. Heuer “are mothers together at St. Albans.” Mrs. Heuer’s husband, Scott, and two of her four children, Amanda, 8 and Charlie, 11, were probably the proudest onlookers. Amanda held the Bible during the ceremony — it was given to her by her godfather, William Scranton, the former governor of Pennsylvania. Then she held her father’s hand while her mother made a few remarks.
“My particular interest is with people,” Mrs. Heuer said. “I do feel that city planning is more than where you put the buildings. You have to think about the people inside.” Mrs. Heuer was sworn in by another friend, Judge George Revercomb, of the D.C. Superior Court. William McComber, deputy undersecretary of state, was one of the first to congratulate her. “I am honored to become the second lady commissioner,” said Mrs. Heuer, who is ‘no women’s libber.”
The first woman commissioner, and also chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission was Mrs. James H. Rowe, Jr., who was appointed by President John Kennedy in 1961 and served until 1969. Mrs. Heuer’s term expires in 1973. An active volunteer, Mrs. Heuer serves on the D.C. Health and Welfare Council, is a member of the Republican Central Committee, and is cochairman of the Women’s Committee of the National Ballet, along with Mrs. Robert Oliver.
Mrs. Marion Smoak, the wife of the acting chief of protocol and Mrs. Peter Flanigan, whose husband is an assistant to the President, talked about their neighbor, Ann Heuer. “She’s very well-organized, although she’s a beautiful blonde and dresses like Vogue magazine,” said Mrs. Smoak. “When I was new in town,” put in Mrs. Flanigan, “Ann was the one I’d call to learn the ropes. The answers would come back, bingo!” Mrs. Flanigan, who has five children, and describes herself as ‘the neighbor with the swimming pool,” said that she and her husband, their children and the Heuers and their children “are all happily compatible.” With the pool, most of them hang out at the Flanigans, she said.
The chairman of the commission is Ben Reifel who grew up in a log cabin on an Indian Reservation; he’s half Sioux and a former congressman for South Dakota who received his presidential appointment in AprilAs the reception broke up, Scott Heuer, a Washington attorney who was inspector general of foreign assistance for the State Department from 1969 to 1971, was heard to say to his wife: “As they say, darling, there goes your golf game.”
[This article originally appeared in The Evening Star, Early 1970s as Commissioner ‘No Libber’. #143 in a collection of more than 100 newspaper articles by Judy Flander from the second wave of the Women’s Movement reflecting the fervor and ingenuity of the women who rode the wave.]
