Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Constance Hopkins SNOW
Constance Hopkins Snow Dallas, 81, the first woman elected to Philadelphia's City Council, died Thursday at Dunwoody Village, a retirement community in Newtown Square.
A liberal Democrat, Mrs. Dallas won election in 1951 in her second, and last, bid for public office. She was swept into office by a reform movement that carried fellow Chestnut Hill resident Joseph Sill Clark to the mayor's office and made Richardson Dilworth district attorney.
A bustling, energetic woman who could keep the three phones in her office busy while fielding questions from reporters and giving directions to her staff, she said she did her best to steer clear of "red tape and that kind of bureaucratic nonsense, the stuff that poses the greatest threat to democracy."
By budgeting her time and juggling her duties - "That's something every mother has to learn to do" - she was able to get things done.
During her four years on the council, she achieved adoption of a new health code and engineered dozens of pieces of major legislation while continuing in her role as a "good cook and a better grandmother" and as a dedicated civic worker, daily hiker, bird watcher and environmentalist.
She urged other grandmothers to "get out of the house and into politics."
''It's nonsense to waste your education and experience after your children have grown up. Unbusy grandmothers can be a menace to children trying to raise their own families," she warned.
"One can either be a parasite or try to be useful."
Active in civic work since Depression days, she had to be lured into the political arena. In 1947, the relatively powerless Democrats put together a reasonable argument.
"They told me they needed a woman and a Protestant and they got two for one in me. I was the economy deal," she recalled in a 1979 interview. She agreed to enter the the council race, she said later, in part because she was ''fairly sure I'd lose."
When she finally took office in 1952, she found herself well prepared.
"I spent three or four years working in a psychiatric hospital and that was wonderful preparation for politics," she said.
Speaking from experience, she insisted that formal education should not be considered criteria for much of anything, particularly for public office. Educated at Sacred Heart Convent in Belgium and at the Germantown Friends School, family finances forced her to drop out after the eighth grade.
From a family that regarded education as a process to be continued throughout one's life, she read widely until her death.
Her dedication to public service came from both sides of the family. She was the widow of George Mifflin Dallas, whose ancestors included Alexander James Dallas, treasurer under President James Madison, and George M. Dallas, vice president under President James K. Polk and the man for whom the city in Texas was named.
She and her husband filled the home at 18 Summit St. with portraits of members of the Dallas family, all irreverantly nicknamed by Mrs. Dallas. One sad-faced matron bore up under the title "Droopy Drawers," and Trevanion Barton Dallas was known only as "Picklepuss" for equally obvious reasons.
She was known for her laughter - at herself, if no other target was available, and for her even temper. She was seldom curt, almost never angry, associates said. Her major worry was that at 5-foot-5 and 150 pounds, she was chubby. And her hobby was cooking.
She took her job as councilman seriously. 'Be sure you say councilman," she insistently told interviewers, "It's the law." Her fellow council members, concerned about proper mode of address, had debated the point for days when she was first seated and then asked the city attorney for a formal opinion.
Abraham L. Freedman, who soon was named to the federal bench, replied that councilman was appropriate to either sex.
She lost a bid for re-election in 1955 to Wilbur H. Hamilton, former Republican city chairman. A dispute with John B. Kelly, former Democratic city chairman and father of the late Princess Grace, played a role.
Acting at the request of the Fire and Police Departments, Mrs. Dallas had sponsored legislation to permit trucks on Henry Avenue. Kelly made it clear he did not want trucks, even fire trucks, on the street in front of his house. Votes from the area went to the GOP candidate.
Undeterred, she went to work, accepting a job as associate editor of the Daily News. One of her first out-of-town assignments was to cover the 1956 wedding in Monaco of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier.
Subsequently, she joined a brokerage firm and worked in the investment field until she was 76. She "retired" then, working only two days a week.
Her activities were sharply limited in recent months by difficulty in walking, even with her cane, which could be converted into a seat like a ''shooting stick" whenever she had to stand for any length of time.
Her last public appearance was Nov. 4, when she joined Sen. Clark and other reform-era officials in the City Hall courtyard dedication of the Richardson Dilworth Plaza and Emlen Etting's abstract sculpture, Phoenix Rising.
She joined her old friends on the podium. They were, she said at the time, ''all lovely."
She remained active to her last few days. She was a board member of the Menninger Foundation and served on the board of the Cosmopolitan Club, the Roadside Council, the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra Society and the Committee of Seventy.
She had served on the city's Commission on Human Relations and on the boards of the Council for International Visitors and the Health & Welfare Council, and was a past president of Children's Service Inc.
Surviving are her son, George M.; daughters, Constance H. Millet and Edith W. P. Taylor; seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
| HOME | EMAIL | SURNAMES |
Return to The Pennocks of Primitive Hall website.
The information in this database may contain errors. If you find any questionable data, or if you have something to add my findings, please feel free to e-mail me by clicking on the "E-MAIL" link above. Thank you!
Page built by Gedpage Version 2.21 ©2009 on 07 July 2020