Walter Franklin GEORGE, Congress, GA (1878-1957)

GEORGE, Walter Franklin, a Senator from Georgia; born on a farm near Preston, Webster County, Ga., January 29, 1878; attended the common schools; graduated from Mercer University, Macon, Ga., in 1900 and from its law department in 1901; admitted to the bar in 1901 and commenced practice in Vienna, Ga.; solicitor general of the Cordele judicial circuit 1907-1912 and judge of the superior court 1912-1917; judge of the State court of appeals from January to October 1917, when he resigned; associate justice of the State supreme court 1917-1922, when he resigned; elected on November 7, 1922, as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Thomas E. Watson; reelected in 1926, 1932, 1938, 1944, and again in 1950 and served from November 22, 1922, to January 3, 1957; was not a candidate for renomination in 1956; served as President pro tempore of the Senate during the Eighty-fourth Congress; chairman, Committee on Privileges and Elections (Seventy-third through Seventy-sixth Congresses), Committee on Foreign Relations (Seventy-sixth, Seventy-seventh, and Eighty-fourth Congresses), Committee on Finance (Seventy-seventh through Seventy-ninth Congresses and Eighty-first and Eighty-second Congresses), Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation (Eighty-first and Eighty-second Congresses), Select Committee on Case Influence (Eighty-fourth Congress), Special Committee on Foreign Assistance (Eighty-fourth Congress); President Dwight Eisenhower’s special ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization until his death; died in Vienna, Ga., August 4, 1957; interment in Vienna Cemetery.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Mellichamp, Josephine. “Walter George.” In Senators From Georgia. Huntsville, Ala.: Strode Publishers, 1976: 230-39; Zeigler, Luther. “Senator Walter George’s 1938 Campaign.” Georgia Historical Quarterly 43 (December 1959): 333-52; Fleissner, James P. “August 11, 1938: A Day in the Life of Senator Walter F. George.” Journal of Southern Legal History 9 (2001): 55-101.

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