Frank William BOYKIN, Congress, AL (1885-1969)

1885-1969

BOYKIN, Frank William, a Representative from Alabama; born in Bladon Springs, Choctaw County, Ala., February 21, 1885; attended the public schools; moved to Fairford, Ala., in 1890 and was employed as a clerk in a store and later as store manager; moved to Malcolm, Ala., in 1905 and engaged in the manufacture of railroad cross ties; moved to Mobile, Ala., in 1915 and was occupied with real estate, farming, livestock, timber, lumber, and naval stores in southern Alabama; during the First World War served as an official in shipbuilding companies; elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-fourth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John McDuffie; reelected to the Seventy-fifth and to the twelve succeeding Congresses and served from July 30, 1935, to January 3, 1963; chairman, Committee on Patents (Seventy-eighth and Seventy-ninth Congresses); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1962 to the Eighty-eighth Congress; convicted in July 1963, on charges of conspiracy and conflict-of-interest by using his congressional influence to gain dismissal of mail fraud charges against J. Kenneth Edlin; served six months’ probation, fined, and received full pardon from President Johnson in 1965; returned to his many business activities; died in Washington, D.C., March 12, 1969; interment in Pine Crest Cemetery, Mobile, Ala.

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