BYRNS, Joseph Wellington

• Joseph W. Byrns, a 14-term Representative from Tennessee, chaired the Appropriations Committee and served as Majority Leader before being elected Speaker following the death of Henry Rainey.
• Known for his work ethic and support for Roosevelt’s New Deal agenda, Byrns served as Speaker for only 17 months before he died. His funeral service was held in the House Chamber.
• Byrns’s son, Joseph Byrns Jr. of Tennessee, served for one term in the 76th Congress (1939–1941).

BYRNS, Joseph Wellington, (father of Joseph Wellington Byrns, Jr.), a Representative from Tennessee; born near Cedar Hill, Robertson County, Tenn., July 20, 1869; attended the common schools; graduated from Nashville High School in 1887 and from the law department of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., in 1890; was admitted to the bar in 1890 and commenced the practice of law in Nashville; member of the Tennessee state house of representatives, 1895-1901; member of the Tennessee state senate, 1901-1903; unsuccessful candidate for district attorney general of Davidson County in 1902; elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-first and to the thirteen succeeding Congresses and served until his death (March 4, 1909-June 4, 1936); chair, Committee on Appropriations (Seventy-second Congress); majority leader (Seventy-third Congress), Speaker of the House (Seventy-fourth Congress); chairman of the Democratic National Congressional Campaign Committee, 1928-1930; was a nominee for reelection to the Seventy-fifth Congress at the time of his death; died in Washington, D.C., on June 4, 1936; funeral services were held in the Hall of the House of Representatives; interment in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Nashville, Tenn.

View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

Herbert Hoover Library

Springfield Public Library