From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Helen Gahagan (November 25, 1900 – June 28, 1980) was an American actress and (under the name Helen Gahagan Douglas) politician. She was the third woman and first Democratic woman elected to Congress from California; her election made California one of the first two states (the other was Illinois) to have elected female members of the House from both parties. Description above from the Wikipedia article Helen Gahagan Douglas, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.                    ​