George Smathers Biography

Former Senator from Florida who served three terms in the U.S. Senate and two terms in the House of Representatives. He was a Democratic politician who spent more than twenty years in Washington focusing on international issues and fighting the spread of communism. He befriended presidents such as Kennedy and Johnson, resisted civil rights legislation, and was an early voice cautioning Castro's rise to power. Smathers pushed for federal holidays to fall on Mondays, helped pass bills to create Medicare, the Everglades National Park, and the Small Business Administration.