After serving as a state senator for 24 years, June Gibbs, of Middletown, failed to win re-election this month. But “I’m not devastated,” she says. “It’s politics.”

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

At 86, she still has a handshake so firm it takes you by surprise. June Gibbs will tell you it’s an important skill for the business she has been in since 1952, which is politics.

No longer.

After 24 years as Republican state senator, she was beaten this election. When she steps down in early January, it will mark the end of what is likely the longest political career of any elected state official still in the game today in Rhode Island. June Gibbs was never one for the spotlight, but in her low-key way, she was the great lady of the General Assembly.

I met her at her home in Middletown, not far from Third Beach Road. The kitchen is small, and she’s squeezed an office onto a messy desk next to the breakfast table. As she sat for an interview, the phone rang — Dennis Algiere, the minority leader.

He called to buck her up, but Gibbs spent most of the call expressing sympathy to him. He’s one of only four Republicans left in a chamber of 38.

I asked if she’s sorry it’s over.

“I’m not devastated,” she said. “It’s politics.” But she added that nobody likes to lose. She had once thought she’d remain a senator as long as she could drive up and back.

I’ve kept an eye on June Gibbs’ career in part because 30 years ago, as a new reporter assigned to The Journal’s Newport office, I covered her when she was one of few Republicans on the Middletown Town Council. Such bodies can be combative, but Gibbs never let herself get caught up in that. She remained gracious and diligent, and it brought her good feelings from both sides of the aisle.

She pointed out that the flowers on her dining table were from a Democratic colleague, Charles Levesque of Portsmouth.

“What a dear,” she said.

And a year ago last June 13, she walked into the Senate chambers to find her colleagues, mostly Democrats, with a cake for her 85th birthday.

“It was a total surprise,” she recalled. They even brought in a 100-year-old doorman from the House chamber who had asked to attend so he could offer good wishes to a “much younger woman.”

She grew up in Sudbury, Mass., graduated Wellesley, married Donald Gibbs in 1945 and followed him to Middletown when he took a job as librarian at the Redwood Library. She got into politics when a friend asked her to canvass for Dwight Eisenhower as well as a local candidate.

Gibbs stayed at it, and in time rose to the Republican National Committee. She’s been to a half dozen national conventions, though she skipped some when she had a tough race. When you’re a Republican in a Democratic district, she explained, you need to be savvy, which means sometimes you don’t flaunt your party.

Early on, Middletown was mostly Republican. It was a vibrant local party, and once a year, they’d move planes out of a hangar at Newport Airport, put wax on the floor and have a dance. They were setting up for it in 1959 when John Kennedy landed with Jackie to spend the weekend at her family estate in Newport. Kennedy had just won the nomination to run against Richard Nixon. Gibbs said everyone paused to stare, but no one rushed up to applaud. They were Republicans after all.

By the 1970s, Middletown had turned Democratic and Gibbs found herself the only Republican, and woman, on the Town Council. She says she got far more grief for being the first than the second.

And she could never take her senate seat for granted. One year, she faced Bob Silva, who had been president of the Middletown council. She thought she’d lose, but campaigned hard door to door, and that won it for her. Gibbs is still surprised with how gracious people are at being interrupted at home. Her theory: “They’re happy when they see I’m not asking for money or trying to change their religion.”

It helped that she is a liberal Republican who has focused on health care and the environment. One of her proudest achievements was going to Washington to help protect Sachuest Point, next to Second Beach, from development. Today, she calls it one of the jewels of state conservation land.

She had other initiatives that never got through until a Democrat proposed the same idea — like outlawing backyard cesspools in sensitive areas. It’s fine with her. If you’re a Republican in the General Assembly, she explained, you have to care about the issue, not the credit.

Many Republicans, though, get frustrated, she said, and she’s seen many come and go.

“I guess I’m just stubborn,” Gibbs said.

She campaigned hard again this time, but after a half century in politics, she saw signs that this wasn’t her year. Part of it was a strong opponent — Lou DiPalma, a Raytheon engineer and Town Council member she respects. And part of it is she sensed what she called a Democratic riptide. Gibbs knew many voters would just check the master box for all Democrats.

On election night, she followed her ritual of going to dinner with those closest to her. She lost her husband in 2001, so it was her son-in-law and daughter Elizabeth, a science teacher in Middletown. Her friend Anna Tillinghast came, too.

“My buddies,” said Gibbs.

Around 8:45 p.m., they left Gold’s restaurant and went to her district polling place at Middletown High School. They were among the few there waiting “live” for results. Gibbs won, but the margin was small, and this was her stronghold.

“It’s not enough,” she said.

They headed to the Atlantic Beach Club where other town Republicans had gathered. The focus was on Gibbs, the most prominent office holder in the small group that included some council and other local candidates.

There was an upbeat moment when results came in for Little Compton, which she won comfortably. But when runners arrived from her other districts in Tiverton, Newport and the rest of Middletown, the election slipped away.

“It was not a squeaker,” Gibbs said.

The final count was DiPalma 6,558, Gibbs 5,955, a 52-48 percent split.

People came up and told her how sorry they were.

“This is politics,” she said.

She left around 10:30.

She will serve until Jan. 6.

She feels honored to have seen big changes. When she arrived at the senate, there wasn’t even a nearby ladies room, and today, a woman is majority leader.

Mostly, she told me, she’ll miss helping constituents.

As I left, I asked if she would consider running again. I was just looking for a quote; I knew she’d dismiss it.

She didn’t.

Probably not, June Gibbs said, but there’s always the House of Representatives; or the Town Council.

She pointed out she’s only 86.

She said that you never know.

mpatinkin@projo.com