Born in St. Louis, Missouri on September 24, 1931,
Cardiss Collins earned a degree from the Northwestern University
Business School in Chicago in 1967. She involved herself in local
politics and actively campaigned for her husband, George Collins,
who was the U.S. Representative for the Seventh District of Illinois.
After her husband died in 1973, Cardiss Collins was elected to the
position he had held, and served in Congress until she retired from
electoral politics in 1996. Collins has received awards for distinguished
service from Roosevelt and Loyola Universities in Chicago, and from
the Congressional Black Caucus. She is now affiliated with the Great
Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
