William Jennings Bryan Jr.

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Not to be confused with his father, William Jennings Bryan.
William Jennings Bryan Jr.
File:William Jennings Bryan Jr. Wide World Portrait 1938 Edit.jpg
Bryan in 1938
Collector of the Port of Los Angeles
In office
March 16, 1938 – June 22, 1953
Appointed byFranklin D. Roosevelt
Harry S. Truman
Preceded byAlfred A. Cohn
Succeeded byCarl F. White
Assistant United States Attorney
for the District of Arizona
In office
1915–1919
Appointed byThomas Watt Gregory
U.S. AttorneyThomas A. Flynn
Preceded byWiley E. Jones
Personal details
Born(1889-06-24)June 24, 1889
Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S.
DiedMarch 27, 1978(1978-03-27) (aged 88)
Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S.
PartyDemocratic
Spouse(s)
Helen Berger
​
​
(m. 1909; div. 1927)​

Ella Bent
​
​
(m. 1929; died 1973)​
Children3
Parent(s)William Jennings Bryan
Mary Baird Bryan
RelativesRuth Bryan Owen (sister)
EducationUniversity of Nebraska
University of Arizona (A.B.)
Georgetown School of Law
OccupationLawyer, politician

William Jennings Bryan Jr. (June 24, 1889 – March 27, 1978) was an American lawyer and politician who served as collector of the Port of Los Angeles from 1938[1] to 1953.[2] He was the only son of Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan.[3]

Biography

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William Jennings Bryan Jr. was born on June 24, 1889 in Lincoln, Nebraska, the son of attorneys William Jennings Bryan and Mary Baird Bryan. Following in their footsteps, he graduated from the University of Arizona in 1912 with an A.B., studied further at the University of Nebraska and the Georgetown School of Law, and became a practicing attorney in Tucson in 1914.[4]

Bryan was appointed a member of the Arizona Board of Regents by governor George W. P. Hunt in 1914,[5] and the next year was appointed an assistant United States attorney for the district of Arizona by attorney general Thomas Watt Gregory.[6] He resigned both positions in 1919 and moved to Southern California the following year.[7][8]

File:William Jennings Bryan, Jr., speaking at Armistice Day observance, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, 1934 Trim.jpg
Bryan speaking at an Armistice Day observance at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1934

Bryan was an unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant governor of California in 1934, losing the Democratic primary to EPIC candidate Sheridan Downey.[9] In the same election, socialist muckraker Upton Sinclair won the Democratic nomination for governor. Refusing to endorse Sinclair and denouncing him as a "socialist interloper," Bryan joined "Democrats for Merriam" and attacked the charges that his father would have endorsed EPIC. After Sinclair lost the election, Bryan celebrated that "[the] most menacing peril to the New Deal has been removed."[10] In his I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked, Sinclair claimed Bryan had opposed him to protect his inheritance and receive a judgeship from Merriam.[11]

In 1938, Bryan was appointed collector of the Port of Los Angeles by president Franklin D. Roosevelt,[12] on the recommendation of senator William Gibbs McAdoo.[13] In a profile by Lemuel F. Parton published shortly after, Bryan was contrasted with his famously-unkempt father as "fussy about his dress, severely and fastidiously groomed with a jaunty little mustache and a nice collection of malacca sticks, sports clothes and varied haberdashery." While he shared his father's convictions for anti-evolutionism and free silver, Bryan was described as speaking with "calm, legalistic precision" as opposed to his father's fiery oratory.[14] He was reappointed by president Harry S. Truman[15] and served until his resignation in 1953.[16]

Bryan moved from California to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1975. He died there on March 27, 1978. He was survived by his three daughters, a stepson, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.[3]

References

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  • Error creating thumbnail: File missing Media related to Lua error in Module:Commons_link at line 62: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). at Wikimedia Commons
  • Our Campaigns - Bryan, Jr., William Jennings

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