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Senate Years of Service: 1946-1966 Party: Democrat
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ROBERTSON, Absalom Willis, a Representative and a Senator from Virginia; born in Martinsburg,
Berkeley County, W.Va., May 27, 1887; moved to Lynchburg, Va., with his parents
in 1891; attended the public schools of Lynchburg and Rocky Mount, Va.;
graduated from the University of Richmond, Richmond, Va., in 1907, and from its
law department in 1908; admitted to the bar in 1908 and commenced practice in
Buena Vista, Rockbridge County, Va.; moved to Lexington, Rockbridge County,
Va., in 1919 and continued the practice of law; member, State senate 1916-1922;
during the First World War served in the United States Army as assistant camp
adjutant at Camp Lee, Va., and in the Adjutant Generals Office, Washington,
D.C., with the rank of major 1917-1919; served as Commonwealths attorney for
Rockbridge County 1922-1928; chairman of the State commission of game and
inland fisheries 1926-1932; elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-third
Congress; reelected to the six succeeding Congresses and served from March 4,
1933, until November 5, 1946, when he resigned; was nominated to the Eightieth
Congress in 1946 but withdrew, having received the nomination for United States
Senator; elected on November 5, 1946, as a Democrat to the United States Senate
to fill the vacancy in the term ending January 3, 1949, caused by the death of
Carter Glass; reelected in 1948, 1954 and 1960 and served from November 6,
1946, until his resignation December 30, 1966; unsuccessful candidate for
renomination in 1966; co-chairman, Joint Committee on Defense Production
(Eighty-fifth, Eighty-seventh, and Eighty-ninth Congresses), chairman,
Committee on Banking and Currency (Eighty-sixth through Eighty-ninth
Congresses); served as consultant to the International Bank for Reconstruction
and Development 1966-1968; retired and resided in Lexington, Va., until his
death there November 1, 1971; interment in Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery.
BibliographyU.S. Congress.
Memorial Addresses. 92nd Cong., 2nd sess., 1972. Washington,
D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1972.
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