John Cornelius STENNIS, Congress, MS (1901-1995)

STENNIS, John Cornelius, a Senator from Mississippi; born near De Kalb, Kemper County, Miss., August 3, 1901; attended the county schools; graduated, Mississippi State College 1923; graduated, University of Virginia Law School 1928; admitted to the bar in 1928 and commenced practice in De Kalb, Miss.; member, State house of representatives 1928-1932; district prosecuting attorney 1932-1937; circuit judge 1937-1947; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate on November 4, 1947, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Theodore G. Bilbo and served from November 5, 1947, to January 3, 1953; reelected in 1952, 1958, 1964, 1970, 1976 and 1982 for the term ending January 3, 1989; was not a candidate for reelection in 1988; President pro tempore of the Senate during the One Hundredth Congress; chairman, Select Committee on Standards and Conduct (Eighty-ninth through Ninety-third Congresses), Committee on Armed Services (Ninety-first through Ninety-sixth Congresses), Committee on Appropriations (One Hundredth Congress); was a resident of Starkville, Miss., and later, Madison, Miss., until his death in Jackson, April 23, 1995; interment in Pinecrest Cemetery, DeKalb, Miss.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives; Downs, Michael Scott. ”Advice and Consent: John Stennis and the Vietnam War, 1954-1973.” Journal of Mississippi History 55 (May 1993): 87-114; Allen, William C. “Senators Poindexter, Davis, and Stennis: Three Mississippians in the History of the United States Capitol.” Journal of Mississippi History 65 (2003): 191-214.

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