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Senate Years of Service: 1939-1951 Party: Democrat
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LUCAS, Scott Wike, a Representative and a Senator from Illinois; born on a farm near Chandlerville,
Cass County, Ill., February 19, 1892; attended the public schools and graduated from the law
department of Illinois Wesleyan University at Bloomington in 1914; admitted to the bar in 1915 and
commenced practice at Havana, Ill.; during the First World War served as an enlisted man and later
as a lieutenant in the United States Army; States attorney of Mason County 1920-1925; chairman of
State Tax Commission 1933-1935; elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-fourth and Seventy-fifth
Congresses (January 3, 1935-January 3, 1939); did not seek renomination, having become a
candidate for Senator; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1938 and reelected in
1944 and served from January 3, 1939, to January 3, 1951; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in
1950; Democratic whip 1947-1949; majority leader 1949-1951; chairman, Committee to Audit
and Control the Contingent Expense (Seventy-seventh through Seventy-ninth Congresses); engaged in
the practice of law in Springfield, Ill., and Washington, D.C.; died en route to Florida at Rocky
Mount, N.C., February 22, 1968; interment in Laurel Hill Cemetery, Havana, Ill.
BibliographyDictionary of American Biography; American National Biography; Schapsmeier, Edward, and Schapsmeier, Frederick.
Scott W. Lucas of Havana, His Rise and Fall as Majority Leader in the United States Senate. Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 70 (November 1977): 302-20.
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