Theodore Gilmore BILBO, Congress, MS (1877-1947)

BILBO, Theodore Gilmore, a Senator from Mississippi; born on a farm near Poplarville, Pearl River County, Miss., October 13, 1877; attended the public schools, Peabody College, Nashville, Tenn., the law department of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; teacher in district and high schools of Mississippi for five years; admitted to the bar in 1908 and commenced practice in Poplarville, Miss.; member, State senate 1908-1912; elected lieutenant governor 1912-1916; twice elected Governor and served 1916-1920 and 1928-1932; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1934, 1940 and again in 1946 and served from January 3, 1935, until his death in New Orleans on August 21, 1947; did not take the oath of office in 1947 at the beginning of the Eightieth Congress; chairman, Committee on District of Columbia (Seventy-eighth and Seventy-ninth Congresses), Committee on Pensions (Seventy-eighth Congress); interment in Juniper Grove Cemetery, near Poplarville, Miss.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Morgan, Chester. Redneck Liberal: Theodore G. Bilbo and the New Deal. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1985; Smith, Charles P. “Theodore G. Bilbo’s Senatorial Career, The Final Years: 1941-1947.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern Mississippi, 1983.

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