HARRISON, Byron Patton (Pat), Congress, MS (1881-1941)

Senate Years of Service: 1919-1941
Party: Democrat

HARRISON, Byron Patton (Pat), a Representative and a Senator from Mississippi; born at Crystal Springs, Copiah County, Miss., August 29, 1881; attended the public schools; briefly attended the University of Mississippi and the University of Louisiana at Baton Rouge; taught school at Leakesville, Miss., and also studied law; admitted to the bar in 1902 and commenced practice in Leakesville, Miss.; district attorney for the second district of Mississippi 1906-1910, when he resigned; moved to Gulfport, Miss., in 1908; elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-second and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1911-March 3, 1919); was not a candidate for renomination in 1918, having become a candidate for Senator; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1918; reelected in 1924, 1930, and again in 1936 and served from March 4, 1919, until his death; served as President pro tempore of the Senate during the Seventy-seventh Congress; chairman, Committee on Finance (Seventy-third through Seventy-seventh Congresses); died in Washington, D.C., June 22, 1941; services were held in the Chamber of the United States Senate; interment in Evergreen Cemetery, Gulfport, Miss.

Bibliography American National Biography ; Dictionary of American Biography ; Coker, William S., “Pat Harrison - Strategy for Victory.” Journal of Mississippi History 28 (November 1966): 267-85; Swain, Martha H. Pat Harrison: The New Deal Years . Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi, 1978.

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