Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives, Photography Collection

ASHMORE, Robert Thomas, (cousin of John Durant Ashmore), a Representative from South Carolina; born on a farm near Greenville, S.C., February 22, 1904; attended the public schools of Greenville; was graduated from Furman University Law School, Greenville, S.C., in 1927; while a student engaged in agricultural work, retail sales, and as a substitute rural mail carrier; was admitted to the bar in January 1928 and engaged in the practice of law in Greenville, S.C.; solicitor of Greenville County Court 1930-1934; solicitor of the thirteenth judicial circuit of South Carolina 1936-1953; during the Second World War, while on official leave from duties as solicitor, volunteered for service in the United States Army in December 1942, serving in this country and overseas until discharged from active duty in May 1946, as a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army Reserve; promoted to colonel in 1955; elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-third Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Joseph R. Bryson; reelected to the Eighty-fourth and to the six succeeding Congresses (June 2, 1953-January 3, 1969); was not a candidate for reelection in 1968 to the Ninety-first Congress; resumed the practice of law; member of the board, South Carolina Appalachian Regional Planning and Development Commission (later South Carolina Appalachian Council of Governments), 1970-1989, and chairman, 1970-1972; was a resident of Greenville, S.C., until his death there on October 5, 1989; interment in White Oak Baptist Church Cemetery, Greenville, S.C.