Coya Knutson

Coya Knutson Gjesdal ( born August 22, 1912 in Edmore, Ramsey County, North Dakota; † 10 October 1996) was an American politician. Between 1955 and 1959, she represented the state of Minnesota in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Coya Knutson was born Cornelia Genevive Gjesdal. She attended the public schools of their home and then to 1934, the Concordia College in Moorhead. She also graduated from there also the State Teachers College. In addition, she was still studying at the Julliard School of Music in New York City. At the time, she was planning to become an opera singer; but that did not materialize. After her studies she worked as a teacher in Penn (North Dakota ) and Plummer and Oklee in Minnesota. Between 1948 and 1950 she was sitting in the Welfare Committee of the Red Lake County.

Politically Coya Knutson was a member of the Democratic Party, which in Minnesota is called since a merger in 1944, the Democratic - Farmer-Labor Party. In the years 1948, 1952 and 1956 she was delegate to the respective Democratic National Conventions. From 1951 to 1954, Knutson MPs in the House of Representatives from Minnesota. In 1954, she was in the ninth constituency of Minnesota in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where they became the successor of Harold Hagen on January 3, 1955. After a re-election in 1956, she was able to complete in Congress until January 3, 1959 two legislative sessions. There she was a member of the Agriculture Committee.

In 1958, she was not re-elected. This defeat was the result of an intrigue her husband Andy Knutson, calling on the public to give up their mandate to provide for the family home. Thereupon, Coya Knutson divorced. In 1960 she applied unsuccessfully to return to Congress. In the following years she wrote some articles in agricultural journals and was interested in the development of children's programs on TV. Between 1961 and 1970 she was the contact person ( Liaison Officer ) between the military and civilian defense establishment. In 1977, it sought unsuccessfully to their party's nomination for a by-election Congress. She died on 10 October 1996.