Marvella Belle Hern Bayh was an Amarivan civic worker and advocate for cancer education and research, and wife of Indiana Senator Birch Bayh.
Background
Marvella Bayh was born on February 14, 1933, in Enid, Oklahoma, the daughter of Delbert Murphy Hern and Bernett Monson, who were farmers. Delbert Hern was also active in local Democratic politics. Faced with straitened circumstances during the Great Depression, the Herns took extra jobs that supplemented their farm income and enabled them to provide their only child with educational and extracurricular opportunities.
Education
At a very early age, Marvella Bayh took elocution lessons and was soon performing and winning public speaking contests. In 1950, as a result of her student leadership and speaking talents, she was chosen governor of the Oklahoma Girls' State and the president of Girls' Nation in Washington, D. C. Throughout her life, Bayh noted these two events as key experiences in her development. After graduating from Enid High School in 1951, where she was the first female to be elected president of the student body, Bayh studied for one year at Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University) at Stillwater. In college, she continued to be recognized as both a leader and a public speaker. She won the American Farm Bureau's national public speaking contest in December 1951, the first woman ever selected.
After marriage to Birch Bayh in 1952, the couple moved to the Bayh family farm near Terre Haute, Indiana. Marvella attended Indiana State Teachers College (now Indiana State University) in Terre Haute from 1952 to February 1954, when she had to withdraw because of injuries sustained in an automobile accident. Three years later, Marvella Bayh enrolled in the undergraduate school. In 1960 she earned a B. S. degree in education, with honors.
Career
From 1962 to 1974 Marvella Bayh served as a counselor at the Indiana Girls' State, and on occasion she spoke at Girls' Nation. Viewing herself as a full partner in her husband's political campaigns, Bayh was involved in his successful bid for the United States Senate in 1962. She was recognized by her husband and others as an effective campaigner and a driving force behind his career. Her researching of issues and traveling throughout the state, using her talents as a public speaker, were repeated in his victorious Senate campaigns of 1968 and 1974.
After their move to Washington, D. C. , Marvella’s oratorical abilities were noted by the Democratic National Committee, and she was recruited as part of a speakers' bureau of public figures who traveled the country giving speeches on behalf of Democratic candidates and administration programs. Bayh was particularly interested in promoting Head Start and child-care programs and in supporting the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. Lady Bird Johnson appointed her as a member of the National Beautification Speakers' Committee.
In her autobiography, Marvella: A Personal Journey, Bayh discussed the difficulties of being a political wife, particularly for a strong and outspoken woman. Most difficult for her were the psychological pressures that resulted from being submerged in a husband's career, a situation that she believed had thwarted her personal development, and the tensions that existed between office staff and family, especially for a woman who assumed an important role in her husband's political life.
Bayh's most significant public contribution was the result of her being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1971, an experience that led her to pursue a more independent and personally fulfilling life. At a time when breast cancer was not talked about openly and mammography was not widely used for screening, she was the first prominent public figure to discuss her cancer and mastectomy in the national media. In addition to her forthright disclosure, Bayh lobbied for early-detection programs and increased funding for research. In magazines and newspapers, and on television, she openly and frankly discussed her breast cancer and treatment as well as her anxieties and fears and, as a result, elicited an enormous national response. She was commended by doctors and cancer patients, who credited her with helping women face the disease; by editors, who said she helped remove the stigma from the public discussion of breast cancer; and by ordinary citizens, who noted that her personal message had educated them on the importance and methods of cancer detection.
In 1973, Bayh served as state cochairman of the American Cancer Society's (ACS) annual crusade in Indiana, and in 1974 she was appointed cochairman of the national crusade. In the national campaign she crisscrossed the country with a film, The Marvella Bayh Story, disseminating information and advocating research for the prevention, treatment, and cure of cancer. In late 1974 she was hired by ACS as a consultant and special representative, a position she held until 1979. From 1974 until July 1976, she hosted a short NBC Sunday television program, the "Bicentennial Reporter. " In 1978 Bayh's cancer returned in an inoperable, metastasized form. In spite of declining health, she continued working on behalf of cancer education programs. She also established the Washington, D. C. , office of ACS's Public Issues Committee, a center for lobbying for cancer-associated legislation and research programs.
In her last year of public interviews and speeches, Bayh's message stressed the importance of religious faith as well as medicine in fighting cancer. In all, she gave over 175 speeches and countless interviews to increase the public's awareness of the disease. After her death, the Washington Post noted: "To the rest of the country hers was the most exceptional life for the way she took the most cruel news about her fate and turned that news into a gift of strength for anyone who ever saw or heard her. " Bayh died in Bethesda, Maryland.
Marvells Bayh served as vice-president of the Indiana Democratic Women's Club (1959). Bayh was a member of the National Beautification Speakers' Committee.
Personality
Marvella Bayh was described as intelligent, vivacious, attractive, and ambitious, and she and her husband were a popular and well-publicized young couple during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.
Quotes from others about the person
Senator Bayh once stated, "My wife has a better political head than anybody who works for me. Marvella is my political confidante and my adviser. "
Connections
At the American Farm Bureau's national public speaking contest in December 1951 Marvella met Birch Evan Bayh, Jr. , whom she married on August 24, 1952; they had one child, Birch Evan Bayh III, who was elected governor of Indiana in 1988 and 1992.
the Oklahoma Pride of the Plainsmen Award (1967)
the American Society of Surgical Oncologists' James Ewing Memorial Award (1977)
the Hubert Humphrey Inspirational Award
1967)
the American Society of Surgical Oncologists' James Ewing Memorial Award (1977)
the Hubert Humphrey Inspirational Award (1979
1967)
the American Society of Surgical Oncologists' James Ewing Memorial Award (1977)
the Hubert Humphrey Inspirational Award (1979