Louise Gore

Louise Gore, 80, for years the grande dame of Maryland Republican politics and twice a candidate for governor in the 1970s, died Oct. 6 2005 at the Washington Home hospice. She had cancer. Miss Gore, a daughter of wealthy lawyer and real estate investor H. Grady Gore, built an extensive network of friends and political contacts through her years of work for numerous social, cultural and political causes. She served Montgomery County in the Maryland General Assembly from 1963 to 1969 -- she was the first Republican woman elected to the state Senate, in 1966 -- and ran unsuccessfully for what was then an at-large Maryland congressional seat in 1964. In her first campaign for governor, Miss Gore scored a surprise GOP primary victory over U.S. Rep. Lawrence J. Hogan in 1974 but lost to incumbent Democrat Marvin Mandel. Four years later, in her second bid, she lost to primary opponent J. Glenn Beall Jr. She remained a force in Maryland Republican politics, however, serving as the state's GOP National Committee member from 1972 to 1984. Miss Gore introduced Richard M. Nixon, a longtime acquaintance, to Spiro T. Agnew, then governor of Maryland, at a fundraiser in 1966 and supported Nixon's presidential campaign two years later. Nixon rewarded her with an appointment as ambassador to the Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Beatrice Louise Gore was born in Leesburg on March 6, 1925, and was raised in the District. She was a graduate of the Holton-Arms School, then in Washington, and attended Bennington College in Vermont and Georgetown University's foreign service school. She worked for Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidential campaign and, by her own count, formed or helped form 2,000 Republican women's clubs after his election in 1952. Dhe was perhaps better known by some as a Washington society figure -- a noted party hostess who, with family members, owned the Fairfax Hotel and opened the prestigious Jockey Club restaurant at the Fairfax Hotel in 1960. Two years later, Holiday Magazine described it as Washington's first elegant restaurant. The family sold the hotel, restaurant and other property to Chicago industrialist John B. Coleman in 1977.