Catherine Dorris Norrell

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Serving as president of the Congressional Wives Club, Norrell befriended Hattie Wyatt Caraway of Jonesboro, Arkansas, who was the first woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate.

Norrell worked in the political sphere since the 1930s when her husband was elected to the Arkansas Senate and later to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1938. Catherine Norrell worked as her husband's legislative assistant while he served in the state legislation and Congress. Following her husband's death, she began her campaign for his seat with the slogan: ““Keep Your Congressional Power Up! Elect Mrs. W. F. Norrell…the Only Candidate Prepared to Step In.”

Norrell was elected as a Democratic candidate to the Eighty-seventh United States Congress April 18, 1961, to fill the vacant seat. In the special election she faced four Democratic male candidates, including lawyer and banker John Harris Jones (born 1922) of Pine Bluff, who attacked Norrell, claiming if elected, she would benefit financially from the congressional salary as well as a pension from her husband's House service. Norrell succeeded in defeating her opponents, winning with 43 percent of the vote to 25 percent for Jones and 23 percent for M.C. Lewis. Catherine Norrell was one of only 20 women serving in the 87th Congress. She took her oath of office on April 25, 1961 and served until January 3, 1963. She was ineligible for renomination due to the elimination of Arkansas's 6th congressional district.

Norrell's first vote in Congress was in favor of the Kennedy administration's Cold War policies that proposed foreign aid to Latin American countries.

In office, Norrell focused her efforts on ensuring economic development for Arkansas and especially, her Sixth District. She made legislative strides to protect her home-state's clay, textile, and lumber industries through increased government control. Norrell noticed the wood industry within her district suffered from reduced tariff rates and she sequentially joined Representative Cleveland M. Bailey of West Virginia in supporting a bill that would ease Internal Revenue Service (IRS) efforts to collect retroactive taxes. This was intended to protect businesses in those areas from financial harassment as well as from foreign countries who failed to reciprocate. In May 1961, Norrell showed her support of the Equal Rights Amendment by sponsoring a joint resolution calling for the Amendment's passage.

Norrell also supported the Equal Rights Amendment and signed a joint resolution in May 1961 which called for its passage. Though Norrell and her husband both identified as Democrats, she was able to stand apart from her husband in her political decisions; she claimed "I expect in the future my vote will be more conservative than liberal."

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