Joe Waggonner

Joe Waggonner (right) with Wernher von Braun on a visit to the Marshall Space Flight Center (1962)

Joseph David "Joe" Waggonner (born September 7, 1918 in Plain Dealing , Louisiana , †  October 7, 2007 in Shreveport , Louisiana) was an American politician . Between 1961 and 1979 he represented the state of Louisiana in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Joe Waggonner attended Plain Dealing High School through 1935 . He then studied at the Louisiana Polytechnic Institute in Ruston until 1941 . During the Second World War , Waggonner served in the US Navy from 1942 to 1945 . In 1951 and 1952 he was again an active member of this branch of arms. In the following years Waggonner worked as a private businessman. He also held some local offices in school administration until 1961. Politically, he became a member of the Democratic Party .

After the death of MP Overton Brooks , he was elected as his successor to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC at the by-election due for the fourth seat of Louisiana , where he took up his new mandate on December 19, 1961. After eight re-elections, he could remain in Congress until January 3, 1979 . There he was considered conservative and was instrumental in a cooperation between the Southern Democrats and the Republican parliamentary group. Waggonner was an opponent of civil rights laws and a proponent of the Vietnam War . He was close to Republican President Richard Nixon, both personally and politically, and opposed impeachment proceedings over the Watergate affair . Even after Nixon's resignation, the two men remained friends. Waggonner was temporarily a member of the Committee on Ways and Means .

In 1978 Waggonner decided not to run again. He supported the election campaign of his successor Buddy Leach . Joe Waggonner died of complications from a stroke and heart problems on October 7, 2007. He was married twice and had three children.

Web links

• Joe Waggonner in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Joe Waggonner in the database of Find a Grave (English)