Reply #22: Pauline LaFon Gore, Carthage, Tennessee

[rabid_nerd]

NAME: Pauline (LaFon) Gore, born 1912
RELATION: Mother of Vice President Al Gore
AGE AT CONVENTION: N/A

BIO:
Although not much has been written about her, it was reported that Pauline Gore was always recognized as a full partner in the family profession and was an accomplished political strategist. Like his father, Al Gore's mother also was an attorney who was interested in public affairs and described as "a formidable personality in her own right." She received her J.D. as one of the first women to ever graduate from Vanderbilt University's law school. The Gore household was described as especially close-knit and very involved in politics and government, which often were discussed at the dinner table. Pauline Gore supported Al Jr's decision to serve in Vietnam but told him she would have left for Canada if he had decided to leave the country to avoid the draft.

Pauline had two children, Nancy and Albert - Nancy was ten years older than Albert and died of lung cancer in 1984, during Al Gore's successful bid for the Senate seat held by retiring Republican Howard Baker.

On July 5, 1995, at the age of 82, Pauline was hospitalized for a heart attack at Vanderbilt's University Medical Center in Nashville.

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http://www.vanderbilt.edu/News/news/mar99/nr3.htm

Pauline Gore honored as distinguished alumnus at Vanderbilt Law School

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Pauline Gore of Carthage, Tenn., one of Tennessee’s most prominent women in public life, has been named the 1999 Distinguished Alumnus of the Vanderbilt University Law School.

Gore, the mother of Vice President Al Gore and wife of the late Tennessee Senator Albert Gore Sr., will receive the award during the school’s Leadership Dinner March 5 at the Loews Vanderbilt Plaza.

Criteria for the award include exemplary professional accomplishments and recognized leadership within one’s field of endeavor. Recipients of the award must also demonstrate qualities that reflect the values of a Vanderbilt Law School education, according to Kent D. Syverud, dean and Garner Anthony Professor of Law. Gore is the first woman to receive the award, which was established in 1988.

She grew up in Palmersville and Jackson, Tenn., where she attended Union University. Gore found only three other women enrolled in the Vanderbilt Law School when she began classes in 1933. Through her own efforts, she financed her education and became the 10th woman to graduate from the law school when she earned her degree in 1936.

She met Albert Gore while she was a student at Vanderbilt. They married in 1937, and she played a prominent role in her husband’s political career at a time when very few women did so. She also was a partner in the Washington, D.C., law firms of Peabody, Rivlin, and Gore and Gore, Claudous and Brashares.

Since her retirement and return to Middle Tennessee, Gore has devoted extensive time to community service and helping those in need. She has served on the boards of the Tennessee Humanities Commission, Tennessee Commission on Aging, the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships and the Smith County Senior Center.

Gore was a member of the Vanderbilt Law School Alumni Board from 1993 to 1996 and delivered the Florrie Wilkes Sanders Lecture on "Life of Women in Political Families" at the law school in 1994. In addition, she has been active in the Democratic Party.

Previous recipients of the law school’s Distinguished Alumnus Award have included James Sasser, Gilbert Merritt Jr., Richard Sinkfield, James Cheek III, Tone Grant, Fred Graham, Douglas Henry, Hugh Morgan, James Neal and Lucius Burch Jr.

For more news about Vanderbilt, visit the News Service home page on the Internet at www.vanderbilt.edu/News/

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From: http://www.baptistpress.org/photodownload.asp?ID=333
MRS. PAULINE GORE
Photo Staff
Mrs. Pauline Gore (center), age 87, upon receiving her bachelor of arts degree from Union University President David S. Dockery (right), responded with "I am so very, very, very proud to be here." Also pictured are Union Provost Dr. Carla Sanderson and Vice President Al Gore.

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