Kathryn Fogg

Kathryn Fogg
Fogg c. 1939
Member of the Washington House of Representatives from the 31st district
In office January 9, 1939 – January 13, 1941
Preceded by	Multi-member district
Succeeded by	Multi-member district
Personal details
Born	Kathryn Farris (1901-07-01)July 1, 1901 Idaho, U.S.
Died	July 2, 1968(1968-07-02) (aged 67) Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Party	Democratic
Other political affiliations	Communist (secretly)

Kathryn Farris Fogg (July 1, 1901 – July 2, 1968) was an American politician who served as a member of the Washington House of Representatives from 1939 to 1941.^[1]

Fogg was elected as a Democrat with the support of the Washington Commonwealth Federation,^[2] but was secretly a member of the Communist Party, a fact which she admitted to during the Canwell Committee hearings in 1948. In turn, she named several other prominent state Democrats as secret Communists.^[3]

In his 1951 appraisal of the hearings, Yale Law professor Vern Countryman characterized the testimony of former party members like Fogg as "questionable," highlighting that they often passed off personal opinions as "official knowledge."^[3] In her memoirs, Communist activist Hazel Wolf denounced those who testified as "stoolpigeons" and cast doubt on their "indelible... memory concerning microscopic events long gone."^[4]

References

1. Washington State Legislative Manual, 1939. Olympia: State Printing Plant. 1939. p. 254. Retrieved September 1, 2025.
2. Phipps, Jennifer. "Washington Commonwealth Federation & Washington Pension Union". depts.washington.edu. University of Washington. Retrieved August 31, 2025.
3. Countryman, Vern (1951). Un-American Activities in the State of Washington. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. pp. 44–45, 341. Retrieved September 1, 2025.
4. Starbuck, Susan (2002). Hazel Wolf: Fighting the Establishment. Seattle: University of Washington Press. pp. 128, 331. Retrieved August 31, 2025.