O’MAHONEY, Joseph Christopher, Congress, WY (1884-1962)

Senate Years of Service: 1934-1953; 1954-1961
Party: Democrat; Democrat

O’MAHONEY, Joseph Christopher, a Senator from Wyoming; born in Chelsea, Suffolk County, Mass., November 5, 1884; attended the parochial and public schools and Columbia University, New York City; moved to Boulder, Colo., in 1908 and engaged as a reporter on the Boulder Herald; moved to Cheyenne, Wyo., in 1916 and served as city editor of the Cheyenne State Leader; executive secretary to Senator John B. Kendrick 1917-1920; graduated from the Georgetown University Law School, Washington, D.C., in 1920; admitted to the bar in 1920 and commenced practice in Cheyenne, Wyo., and Washington, D.C.; member of conference on uniform State laws 1925-1926; city attorney of Cheyenne, Wyo., 1929-1931; Democratic national committeeman 1929-1934; appointed First Assistant Postmaster General in 1933, and served until December 31, 1933, when he resigned to become a Senator; appointed on December 18, 1933, as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John B. Kendrick, and elected on November 6, 1934, to fill this vacancy and also for the term commencing January 3, 1935; reelected in 1940 and again in 1946, and served from January 1, 1934, to January 3, 1953; chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs (Seventy-eighth and Seventy-ninth Congresses), Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs (Eighty-first and Eighty-second Congresses), co-chairman, Joint Committee on the Economic Report (Eighty-first and Eighty-second Congresses); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1952; elected on November 2, 1954, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Lester C. Hunt, and also elected for the full term commencing January 3, 1955, and served from November 29, 1954, to January 3, 1961; was not a candidate for renomination in 1960; resumed the practice of law in Washington, D.C., and Cheyenne, Wyo.; died in the naval hospital, Bethesda, Md., December 1, 1962; interment in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Cheyenne, Wyo.

Bibliography American National Biography ; Dictionary of American Biography ; Coombs, Frank Alan. “Joseph Christopher O’Mahoney: The New Deal Years.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois, 1968; Ninneman, Thomas. “Joseph C. O’Mahoney: The New Deal and the Court Fight.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wyoming, 1972.

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