{{short description|American politician}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Fonda F. Hawthorne | honorific_suffix = | image = | alt = | state_house = Arkansas | district = 4th | term_start = 2013 | term_end = 2015 | preceded = Lane Jean | succeeded = DeAnn Vaught | predecessor = <!--Can be repeated up to seven times by adding a number, start at 3--> | successor = <!--Can be repeated up to seven times by adding a number, start at 3--> | prior_term = | birth_date = 1956 <!-- {{Birth date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}} or {{Birth-date and age|Month DD, YYYY}} --> | birth_place = Stuttgart, Arkansas County<br>Arkansas, US | party = Democrat | spouse = Steve Hawthorne | partner = <!--For those with a domestic partner and not married--> | relations = | children = 2 | parents = | alma_mater = Texarkana College<br> Ouachita Baptist University | occupation = Economic Development Officer | profession = | cabinet = | committees = | portfolio = | website = }}
'''Fonda F. Hawthorne''' (born 1956) is a former one-term member of the Arkansas House of Representatives. She represented the 4th district from 2013 to 2015 for the Democratic Party. She served on the Public Transportation, City County and Local Affairs, and Legislative Joint Auditing committees.
== Career == Prior to running for the Arkansas House of Representatives, Hawthorne was a member of the De Queen-Sevier County Chamber of Commerce.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lieb |first=David A. |date=15 Sep 1999 |title=Minority population continues to grow in the United States |language=en |pages=8 |work=The Hanford Sentinel |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/561774130 |url-access=subscription |access-date=20 Jun 2023}}</ref>
She ran for election for the 4th district of Arkansas in 2012, and served in the House of Representatives from 2013 to 2015 under the Democratic Party. She was defeated for reelection on November 4, 2014, by DeAnn Vaught, a Republican farmer from Horatio, Arkansas. Vaught won by a 59-41 margin in a general Republican sweep of Arkansas elections.<ref>{{cite web |title=Arkansas 2014 general election results |url=http://www.thv11.com/elections/ |accessdate=December 23, 2014 |publisher=thv11.com}}</ref>
In 2019, Hawthorne was sentenced to four months in jail for embezzling money from the Ashdown-Little River County Chamber of Commerce to buy alcohol and tobacco, which she claimed was the result of alcoholism, which she went to rehab for.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Heyen |first=Curtis |date=2019-05-22 |title=Former Ark. lawmaker, chamber director sentenced to prison over theft |url=https://www.ksla.com/2019/05/21/former-arkansas-lawmaker-sentenced-prison/ |access-date=2023-06-20 |website=KSLA |language=en}}</ref>
==References==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawthorne, Fonda}} Category:1956 births Category:Living people Category:Democratic Party members of the Arkansas House of Representatives Category:21st-century members of the Arkansas General Assembly Category:People from Stuttgart, Arkansas Category:People from Little River County, Arkansas Category:Baptists from Arkansas Category:Women state legislators in Arkansas Category:Ouachita Baptist University alumni Category:21st-century American women politicians Category:Politicians convicted of embezzlement