Emmet O'Neal (politician, 1887)

Emmet O'Neal playing paddleball in the Sports Hall of Congress (1937)

Emmet O'Neal (born April 14, 1887 in Louisville , Kentucky , †  July 18, 1967 in Washington, DC ) was an American diplomat and politician . Between 1935 and 1947 he represented the state of Kentucky in the US House of Representatives ; from 1947 to 1949 he was the United States Ambassador to the Philippines .

Career

Emmet O'Neal attended the public schools of his home country and then until 1907 the Center College in Danville . After that he was at Yale University until 1908 . After a subsequent law degree at the University of Louisville and his admission as a lawyer in 1910, he began to work in Louisville in this profession. During the First World War he served as a soldier in the United States Army from 1917 to 1919 . Upon his return, O'Neal continued his legal practice in Louisville. He also got into the banking industry.

O'Neal was a member of the Democratic Party . In the congressional election of 1934 he was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington in the third constituency of Kentucky, where he succeeded Finley Hamilton on January 3, 1935 . After five re-elections, he was able to complete six consecutive terms in Congress by January 3, 1947 . During his time in Congress, further New Deal laws were passed there by the federal government under President Franklin D. Roosevelt until 1941 . Since 1941, the work of the Congress was also shaped by the events of the Second World War and its consequences.

In the 1946 election, O'Neal was defeated by Republican Thruston Ballard Morton . Between 1947 and 1949 he was the successor to Paul McNutt US Ambassador to the Philippines. That state had only just gained independence from the United States at the time. After returning home, he practiced as a lawyer in Washington. He later became chairman of the Corregidor-Bataan Memorial Commission . Emmet O'Neal died on July 18, 1967 in the federal capital Washington and was buried in Louisville.

Web links

• Emmet O'Neal in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Emmet O'Neal in the database of Find a Grave (English)