Virginia Hartigan Cain

Virginia Hartigan Cain (May 1, 1922 – September 19, 2017) was an American politician activist in the state of Nevada for the Democratic Party. She was a teacher at Reno High School and a project coordinator with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, where she helped to pass the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978. She was a member of the Nevada State Democrat Central Committee and chair of the Nevada Democratic Party.

Early life Cain was born on May 1, 1922, in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were James Gerard Hartigan and Virginia Hainza Hartigan (née Williams). The family moved to Asbury Park, New Jersey, and Cain returned to New York when she was sixteen to study at New York University, where she received her bachelor's of arts degree in 1943. She worked for the United States Army as a civilian personnel counselor during World War II, stationed at Fort Monmouth in New Jersey. She met Edmund Joseph Cain, a lieutenant in the Army Signal Corps, and the couple got married in 1944. The couple had three children: Edmund J. III, Mary Ellen and James Michael. They moved to New York, Connecticut, Delaware, overseas to Santiago, Chile, before settling in Reno, Nevada. In 1978, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth District found in favor of her case against members of the Washoe County School Board in the case of Cain v. McQueen 580 F.2d 1001 (9th Cir. 1978), in a decision affirming that her right of due process was breached by the school board's hiring decisions. She worked as a project coordinator with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, where she helped to pass the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 which created exclusive tribal jurisdiction where custody proceedings involved Native American children. She was involved with the American Association of University Women, the Business and Professional Women's Association and the National Education Association.

Later life Cain was president of the Nevada Silver-Haired Legislative Forum and a member of the Sanford Center on Aging at the University of Nevada. Her husband died on January 17, 2003. An award named in her honor, the Virginia Cain Leadership Award, is given annually by the Nevada State Democratic Central Committee.