J. Herbert Burke

J. Herbert Burke

J. Herbert Burke (born January 14, 1913 in Chicago , Illinois , †  June 16, 1993 in Altamonte Springs , Florida ) was an American politician . Between 1967 and 1979 he represented the state of Florida in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Herbert Burke attended the public schools in Chicago and then the Central YMCA College there . He then studied at Northwestern University in Evanston . After completing a law degree at Kent College of Law and being admitted to the bar in 1940, he began working in his new profession in Chicago. During the Second World War between 1942 and 1945 he was used as an officer in the US Army in the European theater of war. For his military achievements, he was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star , among others . At the end of the war he had made it to the captain's position.

Until 1949 he practiced as a lawyer in Chicago. He then continued this activity in Hollywood (Florida) until 1968 . Politically, he became a member of the Republican Party . Between 1952 and 1967 he was a County Commissioner in Broward County . From 1954 to 1958 Burke was a member of his party's state executive. In 1955 he ran unsuccessfully in a by-election for Congress . Between 1968 and 1976 Burke was a delegate to all Republican National Conventions .

In the 1966 congressional election , Burke was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC , in the tenth constituency of Florida , where he succeeded Democrat Sam Gibbons on January 3, 1967 . After five re-elections, he was able to complete six legislative terms in Congress by January 3, 1979. During this time, the Vietnam War and the Watergate Affair took place . The 25th and 26th amendments to the Constitution were also passed at that time. Since 1973 Burke has represented the twelfth district of his state in the US House of Representatives as the successor to Dante Fascell . He hit the headlines in 1978 when he was arrested outside a bar for drug offenses. That earned him a three-month suspended sentence. This process served as a template for a novel and later for the film Striptease based on it with Burt Reynolds and Demi Moore .

In the 1978 congressional election, Burke was defeated by the Democrat Edward J. Stack . After retiring from Congress, he withdrew into retirement, which he in Falls Church ( Virginia spent). He died on June 16, 1993 in Altamonte Springs.

Web links

• J. Herbert Burke in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• J. Herbert Burke in the database of Find a Grave (English)