Served as chair of the House Subcommittee on Postal Operations, and worked with Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield to pass the Granahan bill that allowed for the seizure and detention of the mail of anyone suspected of trafficking in obscenity.
A member of the Democratic Party, she served in the US House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 2nd district for four terms from November 1956 until January 1963.
Appointed Treasurer of the United States and served from January 1963 until November 1966.