FOLLOWING IN BILL'S FOOTSTEPS: JO ANN EMERSON GOES TO WASHINGTON

Jo An Emerson listed to vote tallies on election night with her youngest daughter Katharine.

On election day, Jo Ann Emerson visited the Hillsboro Cemetery grave of her late husband, Bill Emerson.

That night she celebrated her victory, winning the 8th District congressional seat twice -- both in the general election and in the special election to fill the unexpired term of her late husband.

For Jo Ann Emerson, victory was bittersweet. She wished Bill could have been at the victory celebration at the Cape Girardeau Holiday Inn as he had in past elections when he was the candidate.

"It was hard," she recalled Thursday morning as she sat in the reopened congressional office in Cape Girardeau.

Emerson, 46, campaigned under the slogan, "Team Emerson." To Emerson, that was more than just a catchy slogan or a reference to her late husband's legacy.

Jo Ann Emerson said she felt Bill was with her in spirit on the campaign trail.

She said she "talked" to him at times while out campaigning, asking him to help her get through it.

Wherever she went in the district, people talked to her about Bill Emerson. She, in turn, shared stories about him.

She said it felt good to be able to talk about him, although it wasn't always easy. "Every so often someone would tell a story and I would get sad," she recalled.

"I usually am a real private person and I have worked very hard to talk about my feelings," she said.

Bill Emerson died June 22 of lung cancer at the age of 58. The Cape Girardeau Republican had served in Congress since 1980 and had filed for re-election.

Jo Ann Emerson ended up running as an independent candidate in the general election because it was too late for her to file.

She ran as a Republican in the special election.

Jo Ann Emerson said her first thoughts weren't of running for Congress. But as early as the funeral visitation, she was being urged to run.

After the funeral, she discussed the idea at length with her four daughters.

"We have always been a really close family," she said. "It had to be a family decision."

Her 18-year-old daughter, Tori, was adamant that Jo Ann should run. The rest of the family backed the idea too.

She wasn't intimidated by the thought of campaigning. She had campaigned alongside her husband in previous elections.

Jo Ann Emerson said she and her late husband were on the same page when it came to political philosophies and stands on issues.

"We were always very much of a team," she said.

But she said she wasn't used to people applauding her when she walked into a room. "I sort of still get embarrassed by that."

While she had campaigned with Bill, she had never debated as a candidate. "It wasn't easy," she said.

She wasn't used to making speeches either. In the beginning, she relied heavily on notes. But as the campaign went on, she said, the speech making became easier.

She said she ran on adrenaline much of the time, often campaigning 12 to 15 hours a day. "I am really exhausted," she said two days after the election.

She posed uneasily for a picture, seated behind the large desk in her Cape Girardeau office.

But she quickly returned to a chair in front of the desk. She said she doesn't like sitting behind a desk.

Jo Ann Emerson grew up on politics.

Her father, AB Hermann, was 52 years old when she was born.

He grew up in Milltown, N.J., the son of German immigrants who operated a bakery. He was good in sports and ended up playing professional baseball as a third baseman with the Boston Braves.

Emerson said her father didn't believe in debt. "He never had a credit card."

She said she was named Jo because her father wanted a boy. As a child, when she would get in trouble, her father called her "Joseph."

Like her father, she grew up playing baseball. She still has a collection of baseball cards.

Her father was recruited into the Republican Party even though his brother was a Democrat and mayor of Milltown.

He became the clerk to the governor of New Jersey and was the state's witness to the 1936 execution of Bruno Hauptmann, convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh's son.

In 1936, he ran for Congress, but narrowly lost in an election year that was a landslide nationally for the Democratic Party.

Hermann ended up managing election campaigns and serving as chief of staff in Washington at different times for two senators.

He was executive director of the Republican National Committee for years.

He died just after the 1980 primary election that started Bill Emerson on his political career.

"He was a big influence on my life," Jo Ann Emerson said of her father.

Growing up, dinner-table conversation revolved around sports and politics.

The family lived in Bethesda, Md., a Washington suburb.

Emerson said she isn't in awe of Washington because she grew up around the nation's capital and knows how the legislature operates.

She previously worked for the National Restaurant and the American Insurance associations in Washington.

She said lobbyists and politicians often lose sight of the real world. "A lot of people get caught up in the splendor of the job."

But Emerson said she has never had an inside-the-Beltway mentality. Being a congresswoman won't change her, she said.