Helen Gahagan Douglas, Nixon opponent in '50

Helen Gahagan Douglas, who passed on here Saturday, was a one-time US representative whose political career ended when she was defeated in 1950 for a Senate seat from California by a congressman named Richard Nixon.

An actress in her early career, she was married to the actor Melvyn Douglas. She was active in Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, working on the national advisory committee of the Works Progress Administration and the California state committee of the National Youth Administration.

Mrs. Douglas was a US delegate to the UN General Assembly in 1946 and served three terms in Congress.