While in college, at the age of 20, she was an alternate delegate to the 1972 Democratic National Convention, the then-youngest person elected to serve in that role.
[1] She rose to become the senior Democrat on another key committee, Appropriations, and was the first woman to be appointed a chief budget negotiator.
[5][6] She was viewed as an advocate for working families, breast cancer awareness and helping in the preservation of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Dana–Thomas House in Springfield.
[1][7] In 1989, Severns was selected from a nationwide group of legislators to participate as a fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.
[7] After the primary election, she was paired with Dawn Clark Netsch, which is the first and only time in Illinois history two women were the top of the ticket.
[8] However, she was removed from the ballot after one of her opponents, Orland Park Chief of Police Tim McCarthy, challenged her petitions for not having the sufficient number of signatures.
[8] Former Macon County Board Chairman Kevin Kehoe was appointed her successor but lost election to a full term later that year to state Rep. Duane Noland of Blue Mound.
[6][9] The Illinois Secretary of State's Summer Family Literacy program and the Penny Severns Breast and Cervical Cancer Research Fund are named in her honor.