On November 15, 2003, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco became the first woman elected Governor of Louisiana. Born in New Iberia, she attended Mount Carmel Academy, an all-girls school run by the Roman Catholic Sisters of Mount Carmel. She served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1984 to 1988 as the first woman elected from Lafayette, then on the Louisiana Public Service Commission from 1988 to 1996 as the first woman elected to that body and the first to serve as its chairwoman. She served as Lieutenant Governor from 1996 to 2004 and as Governor from 2004 to 2008. Proud of her Cajun ancestry, she took the oath of office in January 2004 in both English and French. She grew up in a large and close-knit family, was a wife, mother, and grandmother, and wished to be remembered not for her twenty-four years of public service but for her deep faith in God, strong commitment to family, and lifelong love of Louisiana.