Born on November 9, 1866, in Salt Lake City, Utah, Florence Prag grew up from 1869 in San Francisco. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1887. Her ambition to study law was frustrated by the family╒s finances, and for 12 years she taught high school English and history. In March 1899 she married Julius Kahn, an actor turned politician and at that time the Republican congressman from California╒s Fourth District. Over the next quarter-century she took a deep interest in his career and in public issues. At his death in December 1924 she decided to seek his congressional seat, and in a special election in February 1925 she won it. Although she chafed somewhat at her distinctly minor committee assignments╤of her appointment to the Indian Affairs Committee she commented ╥The only Indians in my district are in front of cigar stores,╙╤she served patiently.
Winning the regular nomination and election in 1926, Kahn soon laid to rest doubts as to her ability to fill the job, and in 1928 she won assignment to the Committee on Military Affairs, on which her husband had given distinguished service before and during World War I. She later also served on the Appropriations Committee. She was notably successful in securing federal money for her district in the form of numerous military installations and financing for the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Her wit in floor debate made her a gallery favorite, and she was widely accounted among the more effective members of Congress. She served through the 74th Congress, retiring to San Francisco in January 1937 after her defeat in the Democratic landslide of 1936. She died in San Francisco on November 16, 1948.
