John Joseph O’CONNOR, Congress, NY (1885-1960)

O’CONNOR, John Joseph, a Representative from New York; born in Raynham, near Taunton, Bristol County, Mass., on November 23, 1885; attended the public schools; was graduated from Brown University, Providence, R.I., in 1908, and from the law department of Harvard University in 1911; was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1910; moved to New York City in 1911; was admitted to the New York bar in 1912 and commenced the practice of law; secretary to the Democratic members of the New York State constitutional convention in 1915; member of the State assembly 1920-1923; legislative secretary for the Child Welfare Commission in 1921 and 1922; vice chairman of the legislative committee on the exploitation of immigrants in 1922 and 1923; member of the legislative committee on the revision of the corporation laws of New York in 1922 and 1923; delegate to all New York State and county conventions from 1919 to 1938; delegate at large to the Democratic National Convention at Philadelphia in 1936; elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-eighth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of W. Bourke Cockran; reelected to the Sixty-ninth and to the six succeeding Congresses and served from November 6, 1923, to January 3, 1939; chairman, Committee on Rules (Seventy-fourth and Seventy-fifth Congresses); unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination in 1938, but received the Republican nomination and was unsuccessful for reelection to the Seventy-sixth Congress; engaged in the practice of law in New York City and Washington, D.C., until his death in Washington, D.C., January 26, 1960; interment in Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Silver Spring, Md.

Bibliography

Polenberg, Richard. “Franklin Roosevelt and the Purge of John O’Connor: The Impact of Urban Change on Political Parties.” New York History 49 (July 1968): 306-26.

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