Pauline Lillian Vakoch Davis (January 3, 1917 – December 14, 1995) was an American politician and her career was the longest of any woman in either house of the California Legislature. She was one of the few women to serve in the California State Assembly from 1953 until she retired in 1976, including one stint between 1961 and 1966 when she was the only woman member in the Legislature. Sometimes called the "Lady of the Lakes" for her advocacy of recreational and water development projects in California's rural areas, she was a Democrat who represented the 2nd District, an area encompassing several counties in the state's Shasta Cascade region, from 1953 until 1966. Following redistricting for the 1966 elections, she became the representative for the 1st District, which encompassed generally the same area. Davis represented the 1st District from 1966 until her retirement in 1976. She was originally elected to the Assembly following the May 23, 1952 death of her husband Lester Thomas Davis, who had served in the Assembly since 1947. As an Assembly member representing a nine-county mountain district that would eventually serve as the source of water for the State Water Project, Davis battled to protect the interests of her constituents. Davis's interests included, in addition to water development and recreation, fish and wildlife enhancement, emergency flood and relief laws, highway safety laws, problems of the lumber industry, and enhancement of youth programs at local fairs.
Personal life
Davis was born on a pioneer ranch outside of Verdigre, Nebraska to parents of Czechoslovakian descent and attended public schools in Fremont, Nebraska. She married in 1936, shortly after high school, had two daughters, and worked for Bell Telephone Company in Omaha, Nebraska as a long-distance conference telephone operator earning $17 dollars per week. In 1942, during World War II, Davis requested to be transferred by Bell Telephone Company to Stockton, California, to join her husband who had been transferred there by the Western Pacific Railroad. This attempt to "make another try at that marriage" was unsuccessful and the couple divorced. Following the divorce, she met Lester Thomas Davis, eleven years her senior, on a blind date set up by acquaintances of the pair. Lester Davis, at that time, was a Western Pacific Railroad engineer, himself divorced, with a son, and running a Democratic campaign for Assemblyman in a district covering several rural Northern California counties. Davis found Lester Davis's prospects as a part-time Assemblyman less appealing than his better paying job as a railroad engineer, however Lester Davis assured her he wouldn't stay in the position very long so she "went along with it." The two married in 1947 in Berkeley, California and moved with both of Davis's daughters, whom Lester Davis adopted, as well as Lester Davis's 16-year-old son, to Portola, California.
Upon Lester Davis's inauguration in 1947, Davis became his sole staffer both in the Capitol in Sacramento, California and also in his "District office" in Portola, which was their home. The arrangement provided extra income and allowed them to remain together in what Davis called "a very happy marriage." On Valentine's Day in 1949, Davis gave birth to Rodney Davis, who would later become a justice on the Third District Court of Appeal.
Political career
On May 23, 1952, Lester Davis died at home from thrombosis while writing a speech as part of the campaign for his fourth Assembly term. Even though he passed away, he received the majority of primary votes. The Democratic party implored Davis to step in as a write-in candidate and run for her husband's seat. She refused citing the debt from her husband's primary and that she was now widowed with three children still at home, the youngest three years old. She eventually relented on a promise of $5,000 in campaign donations. When that promise seemed to evaporate, she refused to turn in her papers to the Secretary of State until the money was delivered. Nevertheless, John Bryant, a real estate man and her Republican opponent, considered her candidacy so much of a joke that while she was campaigning in Tulelake, he openly mocked her with two other men as she was walking down the street.
When Davis won her election, she was seated on the Assembly floor in the same chair as her late husband and remained in that seat, number 68, for all of her years in office. At the time of her swearing in, she was one of only three women, the other two being Kathryn Niehouse and Dorothy Donahue.