Background
Higgins was born in 1915 in New Rochelle, New York to Marion (Speaks) and Doctor James E. W. Her father was the first Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts of America, serving from 1911 to 1943.
Higgins was born in 1915 in New Rochelle, New York to Marion (Speaks) and Doctor James E. W. Her father was the first Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts of America, serving from 1911 to 1943.
She attended New Rochelle High School before entering Mount Holyoke College, where she graduated with a degree in political science in 1936.
She was only the third woman (after Minnie Doctorate Craig of North Dakota and Consuelo North Bailey of Vermont) to serve as speaker of a state House of Representatives in the United States. Higgins became involved in Bergen County Republican politics, and in 1959 she was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly, where she served three terms. In 1964 she was selected as majority leader, and in 1965 she was selected as Speaker.
In January 1965, she briefly served as Acting Governor of New Jersey when Richard J. Hughes was out of the state.
New Jersey Senate President Charles West. Sandman, Junior. also absented himself from the state so that Higgins would be accorded the honor of serving as Acting Governor, the first woman to do so in state history. Higgins ran for State Senate in 1965 on the Republican Party"s Bergen County slate, but all four Republican candidates went down to defeat in the general election, as Democrats took control of both houses of the Legislature.
She was also the first woman to serve on the board of Orange and Rockland Utilities, Incorporated.
In 1991, at the age of 76, Higgins died at Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood, New Jersey after suffering injuries in a car accident in Hillsdale. She is buried at Maryrest Cemetery in Mahwah.
Assembly-woman New Jersey State Assembly, 1959, representative majority leader, 1964, speaker of house, 1965. Trustee Penpac Commerce Industry, since 1987, Pascack Valley History Society, New Concepts for Living. Vice president Republican Service Volunteer Progressive, Bergen council Boy Scouts American.
Member steering committee Tribute to Women in Industry, 1987-1988. Member Indiana Fee Appraisers, Woman's of Hillsdale, Woman's of Westwood, College of Ridgewood, Mount Holyoke.
Married William F. Higgins (deceased 1983). Children: William F. Junior, Robert Kevin.