U.S. Representative Gladys Noon Spellman was a civic-minded Maryland school teacher and PTA advocate when she signed onto a reform slate running for the Prince George's County commission in 1962. She became the first woman on the commission and by 1966. In her legislative tenure, Spellman fought for cost-of-living raises against making the civil-service more vulnerable to political swings. Today, the memory of Gladys Noon Spellman is kept alive by the Maryland stretch of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway named in her honor.