Dates

• Existence: 1937-

Biography

State representative and attorney Kathleen "Kay" Halloran Chapman was born January 19, 1937 at Estherville, Iowa. A lifelong resident of Cedar Rapids, she attended the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa), earning a bachelor's degree in political science and English in 1959. She married Allen R. Chapman in 1961. As a wife and mother of two young sons Chapman returned to the University of Iowa to attend law school, graduating with distinction in 1974.

When Kay Chapman began her practice of law in 1974 she was the first woman attorney to enter private practice in Cedar Rapids. A Democrat, she was elected to the Iowa General Assembly from the forty-ninth district and served from 1983 to 1992. During her tenure in the Iowa House of Representatives, Chapman served as chair of the rules and administration committee; vice-chair of the ways and means, judiciary and ethics committees; on the commerce committee; and on the legislative council. After serving five terms in the legislature Chapman lost her reelection bid in 1992, but won election from the fifty-third district in 1996 and retired from the House of Representatives in 1999 after serving one term.

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