Edwin Carl JOHNSON, Congress, CO (1884-1970)

JOHNSON, Edwin Carl, a Senator from Colorado; born in Scandia, Republic County, Kans., January 1, 1884; moved with his parents to a cattle ranch near Elsie, Nebr., in 1884; attended the rural schools; employed as railroad laborer, telegrapher, and train dispatcher 1901-1909; homesteaded on government land in Colorado in 1910; operated the Farmers’ Cooperative Milling Elevator and also engaged in the produce business 1920-1930; member, State house of representatives 1923-1931; lieutenant governor of Colorado 1931-1933 and Governor 1933-1937; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1936; reelected in 1942 and again in 1948 and served from January 3, 1937, to January 3, 1955; was not a candidate for reelection in 1954; chairman, Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce (Eighty-first and Eighty-second Congresses), Select Committee on the Joseph McCarthy Censure (Eighty-third Congress); Governor of Colorado 1955-1957; was not a candidate for renomination in 1956; retired but remained active as a volunteer on several State commissions and committees; died in Denver, Colo., May 30, 1970; interment in Fairmont Mausoleum.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; McCarty, Patrick. “Big Ed Johnson of Colorado: A Political Portrait.” Master’s thesis, University of Colorado, 1958.

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