Overton Brooks

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For other persons named Tom or Thomas Brooks, see Thomas Brooks (disambiguation).
Thomas Overton Brooks
U.S. House of Representatives
from Louisiana's 4th district
In office
January 3, 1937 – September 16, 1961
Preceded byJohn N. Sandlin
Succeeded byJoe Waggonner
Personal details
Born(1897-12-21)December 21, 1897
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S.
DiedSeptember 16, 1961(1961-09-16) (aged 63)
Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.
Resting placeForest Park East Cemetery in Shreveport, Louisiana
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseMary Fontaine "Mollie" Meriwether Brooks (married 1932-1961, his death)
RelationsJohn H. Overton (uncle)
Walter Hampden Overton (great-grandfather)
ChildrenLaura Anne Brooks
Parent(s)Claude M. and Penelope Overton Brooks
Residence(s)Shreveport, Louisiana
Alma materLouisiana State University, Baton Rouge (LLB)
OccupationAttorney
Military service
Branch/serviceUnited States Army
Years of serviceWorld War I
The Veterans Administration Hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana, is named for Overton Brooks; photo taken from Clyde Fant Parkway (2012)

Thomas Overton Brooks (December 21, 1897 – September 16, 1961)

Shreveport-based Fourth Congressional District of northwestern Louisiana
, having served for a quarter century beginning on January 3, 1937.

Of a prominent family, Brooks was a nephew of

John Holmes Overton and a great-grandson of Walter Hampden Overton
. At the time of his death, he was chairman of the House Science and Astronautics Committee.

Before politics

Brooks was born in

public schools. Brooks served overseas during World War I
as an enlisted man in the Sixth Field Artillery, First Division, Regular Army, 1918–1919.

After the war, he obtained a degree in 1923 from

Caddo Parish
in the northwestern corner of his state.

On June 1, 1932, Brooks married the former Mary Fontaine "Mollie" Meriwether, a daughter of Minor Meriwether, a planter and

Houston, Texas.[citation needed
]

Political career

1940

Brooks faced a showdown with Henry Andrew O'Neal, a Shreveport

insurance agent originally from Linden in Cass County, Texas. In the primary election, state Representative Wellborn Jack of Caddo Parish and J. Frank Colbert, the former mayor of Minden, were eliminated from further consideration.[2] In the second round of balloting, Brooks received 19,375 votes (55.6 percent) to O'Neal's 15,450 (44.4 percent).[3]

In 1947–8, he served on the Herter Committee.[4]

1948

In 1948, Brooks defeated two intra-party rivals

Natchitoches Parish
native residing in Shreveport.

1950

1952

He decried inflated home prices and large federal withholding rates from paychecks so that many could "barely buy groceries."[5] May claimed that Brooks had given tacit support of a "Marxist" foreign policy: We cannot return sanity in foreign affairs by returning to Congress the same men who got us into this mess."[6]

1956

Brooks was reelected to Congress twelve times. In 1956, he signed the

United States Supreme Court in the case Brown v. Board of Education. For a time the segregationist publisher Ned Touchstone of Bossier City worked on Brooks' staff. Brooks also urged the strengthening national defense, the expanded production of natural gas, rural electrification, and "fair prices" for farm, dairy, and ranch products.[7]

1960, the last congressional race

In 1960, during a KKK rally led by Roy Davis, a cross was burnt in the front yard of Brooks' home leading to a police investigation and the arrest of Roy Davis.[8][9]

In Brooks' last election to Congress in 1960, he faced another Republican challenger, Fred Charles McClanahan Jr. (1918–2007), a contractor from Shreveport who was reared in

segregation, having proclaimed "No right of the United States government to force integration in public schools."[10]

Brooks prevailed in his final race, 74-26 percent, though the Kennedy-Johnson ticket did not carry the Fourth Congressional District.

Committee service

Brooks served on the

U.S. President John F. Kennedy's speech which prompted the development of the Apollo program was delivered a few weeks later.[11]

The Overton Brooks Veterans Administration Medical Center at 510 East Stoner Street in Shreveport south of Interstate 20 and viewed from along the Clyde Fant Parkway is named in his honor.[12]

Two

conservative legislative assistants to Representative Brooks, Ned Touchstone and Billy McCormack,[13] went on to careers of their own in advocacy journalism
and the Christian ministry.

Portrait of Brooks in the Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives

1961 Rules Committee vote

Death and legacy

A few months after the roll call vote on enlargement of the House Rules Committee, Brooks died of a

Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.[14]

Speaker Rayburn died exactly two months after Brooks.

Brooks was a member of the

Kiwanis International
.

Brooks is interred at Forest Park Cemetery East in Shreveport, the resting place of many Shreveport

Episcopalian
.

The

Veterans Administration Hospital in Shreveport was renamed for Brooks in 1988.[15]

See also

  • List of United States Congress members who died in office (1950–99)

References

  1. Shreveport Times
    , September 17, 1961, p. 1
  2. ^ "Kennon Will Met Judge Drew in Runoff; Overton Brooks Leads Race", Minden Herald, September 13, 1940, p. 1
  3. ^ "Kennon, Brooks Win Races: Kennon Defeats Drew in Court of Appeal Race; Overton Brooks Wins over Henry A. O'Neal in Congressional Race", Minden Herald, October 18, 1940, p. 1
  4. ^ "Final Report on Foreign Aid of the House Select Committee on Foreign Aid" (PDF). Marshall Foundation. May 1, 1948. Retrieved May 30, 2020.
  5. ^ Minden Press, June 13, 1952, p. 12
  6. ^ Minden Press (advertisement), June 27, 1952, p. 5
  7. ^ Minden Herald, July 26, 1956, p. 2
  8. ^ "Cross Burning". The Times of Shreveport. February 9, 1961.
  9. ^ "US Attorney Studies Cross Burning Here". The Times of Shreveport. February 11, 1961.
  10. ^ a b c Fred McClanahan advertisement, Minden Press, Minden, Louisiana, October 17, 1960, p. 5
  11. ^ Launius, Roger D. (July 2004) [Originally published July 1994]. Apollo: A Retrospective Analysis (PDF). Monographs in Aerospace History. Vol. 3. Washington, D.C.: NASA History Office. pp. 54–76. Retrieved June 15, 2022.
  12. ^ "Overton Brooks VA Medical Center". switchboard.com. Retrieved June 15, 2012.
  13. ^ "Billy McCormack". mccormackmissiongroup.com. Retrieved June 10, 2012.[permanent dead link]
  14. ^ James C. Gardner, Jim Gardner and Shreveport, Vol. II (Shreveport: Ritz Publications, 2006), pp. 30–31
  15. ^ "History". 29 September 2021.
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Louisiana's 4th congressional district
1937–1961 		Succeeded by
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