Marigene Valiquette

Marigene Gertrude Valiquette (born August 22, 1924) is an American retired politician who was a member of the Ohio General Assembly. She served 24 consecutive years in the state legislature, first as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives, beginning in 1963, and subsequently as a member of the Ohio State Senate, from 1969 until 1986.

Career
During her third year of law school at the University of Toledo, Valiquette became a law clerk for Judge Geraldine Macelwane in 1959 after an unsuccessful run for city council.

For most of her 18 years as a state senator, Valiquette was the only female senator in office. She became chair of the Judiciary Committee in 1971; later she chaired the Ethics Committee. During a period in the 1980s when the Democratic Party was in the majority, she was a ranking member on both the Finance and the Rules Committee.

In the early 1970s, as a state senator, Valiquette advocated strongly for Ohio's passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), the proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that aimed to guarantee equal rights for women; in February 1974 Ohio became the 33rd state to ratify the ERA.

In 1985 and 1986, Valiquette was absent from the Ohio Senate for a number of months which ended her career. The absences were attributed to family deaths and financial issues.

In 1978, she was inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame.