Jean Hall Lloyd-Jones

"The women of Iowa are better off because of Jean's devotion to our interests and concerns."-- Janet A. Carl, 2002

Jean Hall Lloyd-Jones, of Iowa City, began her career as a volunteer in local peace and civic activities, including Another Mother for Peace, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, vigils and teach-ins to protest the Viet Nam war. A member of the League of Women Voters since 1955, she served as local and state president. In 1971 she led the League to join the ACLU, AFL-CIO, and the Democratic Party to petition the Supreme Court in the successful effort to overturn the reapportionment plan adopted by the state legislature. In 1977 she chaired the Iowa Coordinating Committee for International Women's Year. She was elected to the Iowa General Assembly in 1978, serving four terms in the House and two terms in the Senate. As a state legislator, she and others formed a support group for women pages, which later became the Legislative Women's Caucus. She managed the "Buckle up Baby" bill, steered the government reorganization bill through the House, and led the effort to revitalize rail service through central Iowa. She conceived the idea for the Iowa Peace Institute, worked to build and fund that organization, and served as its chair for the first eight years. She is the only woman in Iowa to have been nominated by a major party for the US Senate. After retiring from the Legislature, she received an MA in Conflict Resolution from Antioch University. She has been a member of the Iowa Sister States Program for many years, traveling to China, Russia and Japan as a citizen ambassador. Lloyd-Jones was born October 14, 1929, in Washington, DC. Lloyd-Jones was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 2003.