John Holmes OVERTON, Congress, LA (1875-1948)

OVERTON, John Holmes, (uncle of Overton Brooks), a Representative and a Senator from Louisiana; born in Marksville, Avoyelles Parish, La., September 17, 1875; attended the public schools; graduated from the Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge in 1895 and from the law department of Tulane University, New Orleans, La., in 1897; admitted to the bar in 1898 and commenced practice in Alexandria, La.; member of the board of supervisors of Louisiana State University; elected on May 12, 1931, as a Democrat to the Seventy-second Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of James B. Aswell and served from May 12, 1931, to March 3, 1933; did not seek renomination in 1932, having become a candidate for Senator; elected to the United States Senate in 1932; reelected in 1938 and 1944 and served from March 4, 1933, until his death; chairman, Committee on Manufactures (Seventy-sixth through Seventy-ninth Congresses), Committee on Commerce (Seventy-ninth Congress), Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation (Seventy-ninth Congress); died in the naval hospital at Bethesda, Md., May 14, 1948; interment in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Pineville, La.

Bibliography

Wernet, Mary Linn. “The United States Senator Overton Collection and the History It Holds Relating to the Controls of Floods in the Alluvial Valley of the Mississippi, 1936-1948.” Louisiana History 46 (Fall 2005): 449-64; U.S. Congress. House. Memorial Services. 81st Cong., 1st sess., 1949. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1950.

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