Judy Biggert
Judith Gail Biggert (née Borg; born August 15, 1937) is an American politician and attorney. She is the former U.S. Representative for Illinois's 13th congressional district, serving from 1999 to 2013. She is a member of the Republican Party.
Judy Biggert
Biggert was defeated in her 2012 re-election bid by former US Congressman Bill Foster. She was also the last Republican woman elected to Congress from Illinois until the election of Mary Miller of the 15th congressional district in 2020.
Prior to serving in Congress, she served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1993 to 1998. After leaving Congress, she was appointed to serve on the Illinois Education Labor Relations Board.
Early life, education and career[edit]
Biggert was born Judith Gail Borg in Chicago on August 15, 1937, the second of four children of Alvin Andrew Borg and Marjorie Virginia (Mailler) Borg. Her father worked for the Chicago-based Walgreen Co., the largest drugstore chain in the United States, for 41 years from 1928 to 1969, and served as its president from 1963 to 1969, succeeding Charles R. Walgreen Jr. and succeeded by Charles R. Walgreen III.[1] Her paternal grandparents immigrated from Finland and her maternal family is of English descent.[2]
She grew up in Wilmette, Illinois, a North Shore Chicago suburb, and graduated from New Trier High School in 1955, then went to Stanford University, where she received a B.A. in international relations in 1959, then worked for a year in a women's apparel store.[3][4] She then attended Northwestern University School of Law where she was an editor of the Northwestern University Law Review from 1961 to 1963, earned a J.D. in 1963, then clerked for federal judge Luther Merritt Swygert of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1963 to 1964.[5]
Biggert left her federal court law clerkship to have her children, but later did some legal work from her home for family and friends on wills, trusts, and real estate.[4][6] She served on numerous boards of voluntary and civic organizations.[4][6]
Early community involvement and political career[edit]
Biggert was elected to the Hinsdale Township High School District 86 Board of Education in 1978 and was a board member until 1985, serving as president from 1983 to 1985.[5] She served as chairman of the Hinsdale Plan Commission from 1989 to 1993.[5] She also became active in Chicago community organizations, serving as chair of the Visiting Nurses Association and as president of the Junior League.[7]
In 1992, Biggert was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives to serve the redrawn 81st District. She was re-elected in 1994 and 1996 before running for Congress in 1998.
Post-congressional career[edit]
On April 23, 2015, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner appointed Biggert to the Education Labor Relations Board, which oversees the negotiation of teacher contracts.[59]
Personal life[edit]
On September 21, 1963,[60] she married Rody Patterson Biggert, Jr. Rody and Judy Biggert lived in Chicago, then Wilmette,[61] before moving to Hinsdale in 1971, when Rody's mother sold them her home, the extensively remodeled 1864 mansion of Hinsdale's founder, William Robbins, in the Robbins Park Historic District.[62] The Biggerts have four children: Courtney Caverly, Alison Cabot,[63] Rody Biggert,[61] and Adrienne Morrell,[64][65] and nine grandchildren.[5] Her husband, Rody, died in November 2018 after an 18-month long struggle with leukemia at the age of 82.[66]
Since 2004, Biggert's youngest daughter Adrienne Morrell has been a registered lobbyist for Health Net, the sixth largest publicly traded for-profit managed healthcare company; previously Morrell was a lobbyist with America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the chief health insurance industry lobby, after having served as an aide to former seven-term Illinois 13th District U.S. Rep. Harris Fawell, Biggert's predecessor in Congress.[64][65]
In 2008, multimillionaire Biggert was the second wealthiest—after U.S. Rep. Bill Foster (D-14)—in Illinois's 21-member Congressional delegation, and the 82nd wealthiest member in the U.S. House.[67]
Biggert was president of the Junior Board of the Chicago Travelers Aid Society in 1969, and president of the Junior League of Chicago from 1976 to 1978, chairman of board of directors of the Visiting Nurse Association of Chicago in 1978, and president of the Oak School elementary school PTA in Hinsdale from 1976 to 1978. She was a member of the board of directors of the Salt Creek Ballet from 1990 to 1998. She was also a Sunday school teacher at Grace Episcopal Church in Hinsdale from 1974 to 1984, and an American Youth Soccer Organization assistant soccer coach in 1983.[5]