Widow sworn in to fill husband's seat in House

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2005, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

WASHINGTON - Two months after her husband Bob's death, Doris Matsui was sworn in Thursday to fill the Sacramento, Calif.-area House seat he held for 26 years.

''Despite tragedy and heartbreak life indeed does go on, and I know that somewhere Bob is looking down and smiling,'' the 60-year-old Democrat said in her first House floor speech after Speaker Dennis Hastert administered the oath of office.

Matsui joins three other widows serving in the House. Californians Mary Bono, a Republican, and Lois Capps, a Democrat, also replaced their husbands in Congress upon their deaths, as did Missouri Republican Jo Ann Emerson.

Bob Matsui, an authority on Social Security, D-Calif., died Jan. 1 of complications from a rare bone barrow disease.