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Senate Years of Service: 1913-1940 Party: Democrat
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PITTMAN, Key, a Senator from Nevada; born in Vicksburg, Warren County, Miss., September 12,
1872; educated by private tutors and at the Southwestern Presbyterian University, Clarksville, Tenn.;
studied law; admitted to the bar in 1892 and commenced practice in Seattle, Wash.; joined in the
gold rush to Klondike, Alaska, in 1897 and worked as a miner until 1901; practiced law in Alaska;
moved to the silver boom-town of Tonopah, Nev., in 1902 and continued the practice of law;
appointed to represent the State of Nevada at the St. Louis Exposition, the Lewis and Clark
Exposition, and the irrigation congress; unsuccessful Democratic candidate for election to the United
States Senate in 1910; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1913 to fill the vacancy
caused by the death of George S. Nixon; reelected in 1916, 1922, 1928 and 1934 and served from
January 29, 1913, until his death; had been reelected in 1940 for the term beginning January 3, 1941;
served as President pro tempore of the United States Senate during the Seventy-third through
Seventy-sixth Congresses; chairman, Committee on Territories (Sixty-third through Sixty-fifth
Congresses), Committee on Industrial Expositions (Sixty-sixth Congress), Committee on Foreign
Relations (Seventy-third through Seventy-sixth Congresses); died in Reno, Nev., November 10,
1940; interment in Mountain View Cemetery.
BibliographyAmerican National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Glad, Betty. Key Pittman: The Tragedy of a
Senate Insider. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986; Israel, Fred. Nevadas
Key Pittman. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1963.
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