Millicent Vernon Fenwick (née Hammond; February 25, 1910 – September 16, 1992) was an American fashion editor, politician, and diplomat.

A four-term Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey, she was renowned for her energy and colorful enthusiasm.

[8] Ogden Haggerty Hammond was “the son of a civil war general,” and after his father's passing, he “entrenched himself in all aspects of superior life.”[8] Mary Picton Stevens “was the heir to a fortune based largely on real estate holdings in Hoboken, New Jersey.

[8] In 1915, when Millicent was five years old, her mother perished in the sinking of the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania, which her father survived.

In 1918, the trial of the Lusitania took place, as people were suing the ship's company for failure to show passengers aboard the safety precautions.

[10] After searching for jobs and not being recognized by publishers for the stories she had authored, Millicent was hired to work for Vogue magazine as a caption editor.

Often described as being blessed with exceptional intelligence, striking good looks, and a keen wit,[16] she rose rapidly in the ranks of the Republican Party.

Known for her opposition to corruption by both parties and special interest groups, she was called "the conscience of Congress" by television newscaster Walter Cronkite.

They were primarily an effort to reduce tension between the Soviet and Western blocs by securing their common acceptance of the post-World War II status quo in Europe.

She met refuseniks who wanted to contact American congressmen and held an unofficial meeting with dissident Yuri Orlov.

She was thus convinced that political action in America based on the Helsinki Accords would improve human rights in the Soviet Union.

Returning to the U.S., Fenwick initiated the establishment of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), which oversaw the implementation of the Helsinki Accords.

Virtually any night, hours after typical congressmen had headed out for dinner and home, she stayed working in her Capitol Hill office, and always was willing to answer reporters' questions about her actions.

However, she then narrowly lost the general election to progressive Democratic businessman and Automatic Data Processing CEO Frank Lautenberg in an upset.

"[20] In 2008, when Lautenberg was running for reelection to the Senate, his Republican opponents made an issue out of his age of 84, arguing that he had voiced similar criticisms of the then-72-year-old Fenwick during their 1982 election campaign.

[12] The Millicent Fenwick Monument, a sculpture by Dana Toomey, was paid for by voluntary donations and unveiled in October 1995.