Sala Burton


Sala Galant Burton was a Polish-born American politician who served as a United States Representative from California from 1983 until her death from colon cancer in Washington, D.C., in 1987.

Early life and education

She was born Sala Galant Lipschultz into a Jewish family in Białystok, Poland. The family immigrated 1939 before the German Invasion of Poland to the US, and she attended public schools in San Francisco and then University of San Francisco.

Career

She was the associate director of the California Public Affairs Institute from 1948 to 1950. She was the vice president of the California Democratic Council from 1951 to 1954. She served as president of the San Francisco Democratic Women's Forum from 1957 to 1959.
Burton served as a delegate to Democratic National Conventions, 1956, 1976, 1980, and 1984. She was elected as a Democrat to the 98th Congress by special election to fill the vacancy caused by the death of her husband, United States Representative Phillip Burton. She was reelected to the two succeeding Congress terms.

Personal life

Galante met her future husband Phillip Burton at a California Young Democrats convention in 1950. They were married from 1953 until Phillip Burton's death in 1983. They raised a daughter, Joy, from Galante's previous marriage that ended in divorce. Phillip & Sala Burton High School, on the site of the former Woodrow Wilson High School in San Francisco, is named after the couple.
She died from colon cancer on February 1, 1987, in Washington, D.C., and was buried in the Presidio of San Francisco.