Allen Joseph ELLENDER, Congress, LA (1890-1972)

ELLENDER, Allen Joseph, a Senator from Louisiana; born in Montegut, Terrebonne Parish, La., September 24, 1890; attended the public and private schools; graduated from St. Aloysius College, New Orleans, La., in 1909 and from the law department of Tulane University, New Orleans, La., 1913; admitted to the bar in 1913 and commenced practice in Houma, La.; city attorney of Houma 1913-1915; district attorney of Terrebonne Parish 1915-1916; during the First World War served as a sergeant in the Artillery Corps, United States Army 1917-1918; delegate to the constitutional convention of Louisiana in 1921; Democratic national committeeman from Louisiana 1939-1940; member, State house of representatives 1924-1936, serving as floor leader 1928-1932 and as speaker 1932-1936; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1936; reelected in 1942, 1948, 1954, 1960, and 1966, and served from January 3, 1937, until his death on July 27, 1972; President pro tempore of the Senate during the Ninety-second Congress; chairman, Committee on Claims (Seventy-eighth and Seventy-ninth Congresses), Committee on Agriculture and Forestry (Eighty-second and Eighty-fourth through Ninety-first Congresses), Committee on Appropriations (Ninety-second Congress); died at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, Bethesda, Md.; interment in Magnolia Cemetery, Houma, La.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Becnel, Thomas A. Senator Allen Ellender of Louisiana: A Biography. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996; U.S. Congress. Memorial Services. 92nd Cong., 2nd sess., 1972. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1974.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present