Laurence Hawley WATRES, Congress, PA (1882-1964)

WATRES, Laurence Hawley, a Representative from Pennsylvania; born in Scranton, Lackawanna County, Pa., July 18, 1882; attended the public schools and Hill School, Pottstown, Pa.; was graduated from Princeton (N.J.) University in 1904 and from the law school of Harvard University in 1907; was admitted to the bar in 1907 and commenced practice in Scranton, Pa.; during the First World War served from September 26, 1916, as captain in the One Hundred and Eighth Machine Gun Battalion of the Twenty-eighth Division; promoted to major and discharged May 28, 1919; awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Purple Heart Medal; after the war assisted in reorganizing the One Hundred and Ninth Infantry Regiment of the Pennsylvania National Guard and served as lieutenant colonel; elected as a Republican to the Sixty-eighth and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1923-March 3, 1931); was not a candidate for renomination in 1930; resumed the practice of law in Scranton, Pa., until 1951; moved to East Orange, N.J.; died while vacationing in Puerto Rico, February 6, 1964; interred in Glenwood Mausoleum, South Abington Township, Pa.

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