John Cornelius STENNIS, Congress, MS (1901-1995)

STENNIS John Cornelius , a Senator from Mississippi; born near De Kalb, Kemper County, Miss., August 3, 1901; attended the county schools; graduated, Mississippi State College 1923; graduated, University of Virginia Law School 1928; admitted to the bar in 1928 and commenced practice in De Kalb, Miss.; member, State house of representatives 1928-1932; district prosecuting attorney 1932-1937; circuit judge 1937-1947; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in a special election on November 4, 1947, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Theodore G. Bilbo and served from November 5, 1947, to January 3, 1953; reelected in 1952, 1958, 1964, 1970, 1976 and 1982 for the term ending January 3, 1989; was not a candidate for reelection in 1988; President pro tempore of the Senate during the One Hundredth Congress; chairman, Select Committee on Standards and Conduct (Eighty-ninth through Ninety-third Congresses), Committee on Armed Services (Ninety-first through Ninety-sixth Congresses), Committee on Appropriations (One Hundredth Congress); was a resident of Starkville, Miss., and later, Madison, Miss., until his death in Jackson, April 23, 1995; interment in Pinecrest Cemetery, DeKalb, Miss.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives; Downs, Michael Scott. "Advice and Consent: John Stennis and the Vietnam War, 1954-1973." Journal of Mississippi History 55 (May 1993): 87-114; Allen, William C. "Senators Poindexter, Davis, and Stennis: Three Mississippians in the History of the United States Capitol." Journal of Mississippi History 65 (2003): 191-214.

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