James Churchill OLIVER, Congress, ME (1895-1986)

OLIVER James Churchill , a Representative from Maine; born in South Portland, Cumberland County, Maine, August 6, 1895; attended the public schools; Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, A.B., 1917; during the First World War enlisted on June 4, 1917, attended the Plattsburg Barracks Training Camp, and was commissioned a captain on November 27, 1917; was promoted to major of Infantry on October 9, 1918, and transferred to the Inspector General's Department until honorably discharged on July 22, 1919; engaged in the general insurance business in Portland, Maine, 1930-1937; member of the board of aldermen of South Portland, Maine, in 1932 and 1933; elected as a Republican to the Seventy-fifth, Seventy-sixth, and Seventy-seventh Congresses (January 3, 1937-January 3, 1943); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1942; served as lieutenant commander in the United States Coast Guard from January 26, 1943, to April 23, 1946; in 1946 engaged in the real estate and insurance business in Maine and California; unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Governor in 1952; unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Congress in 1954 and 1956; unsuccessfully contested the election of Robert Hale to the Eighty-fifth Congress in 1956; elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-sixth Congress (January 3, 1959-January 3, 1961); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1960 to the Eighty-seventh Congress; delegate to Democratic National Convention, 1960; real estate developer in Cape Elizabeth, Maine; moved to Orlando, Fla., where he died December 25, 1986.

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