26 Facts About Clarence Cannon

Clarence Andrew Cannon was a Democratic Congressman from Missouri serving from 1923 until his death in Washington, DC in 1964.

Clarence Cannon was a notable parliamentarian and chaired the US House Committee on Appropriations.

Clarence Cannon is the longest-serving member of the United States House of Representatives from the state of Missouri.

Clarence Cannon possessed a firm belief in the superiority of the agrarian lifestyle and small-town values.

In 1901, Clarence Cannon graduated from La Grange Junior College in Hannibal, Missouri, from William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri in 1903, and from the law school of the University of Missouri in Columbia in 1908.

Clarence Cannon established a law practice in Troy, Missouri, but soon transferred it to his home town of Elsberry.

Clarence Cannon was initiated into the Alpha-Omega chapter of the Kappa Sigma fraternity while an undergraduate at William Jewell in 1903.

In 1906, Clarence Cannon married Ida Dawson Wigginton; they had two daughters.

Clarence Cannon eagerly sought elective office, but his first two campaigns, for county school superintendent and state representative, ended in defeat.

When Democrats elected Clark Speaker of the House that year, Clarence Cannon found himself near the center of power in Washington.

Clarence Cannon's skills proved so impressive that the Republicans retained him after winning the House in 1918.

Clarence Cannon exercised lasting influence over the workings of Congress through publications such as Procedure in the House of Representatives and Clarence Cannon's Precedents of the House of Representatives.

Clarence Cannon challenged Hukriede for his mentor's seat in the House of Representatives in 1922 and won.

Clarence Cannon supported parity payments to maintain farmers' incomes, low-interest federal farm loans, and soil conservation and flood control projects.

Clarence Cannon played a major role in the establishment of the rural electrification program and in obtaining government funds for agricultural research.

Clarence Cannon retained this powerful position, except for four years of Republican control, until his death.

Clarence Cannon urged a quick reduction in military expenditures immediately after World War II, denounced foreign aid as waste, and ridiculed the space program as "moondoggle".

Always outspoken, sometimes irascible, Clarence Cannon earned a reputation for pugnacity.

Clarence Cannon noted gleefully that Taber ran out of the room with a bleeding lip.

In 1962, Clarence Cannon engaged in an unseemly and well-publicized dispute with US Senator Carl Hayden of Arizona, another octogenarian Democrat, over obscure matters of parliamentary precedent.

Clarence Cannon did not sign the 1956 Southern Manifesto, and voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957,1960, and 1964, but voted present on the 24th Amendment to the US Constitution.

Clarence Cannon died of heart failure at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC He had already announced his intention to seek reelection later in the year.

Clarence Cannon was the author of A Synopsis of the Procedure of the House, Procedure in the House of Representatives, and Clarence Cannon's Procedure, subsequent editions of the latter being published periodically by resolutions of the House until 1963.

Clarence Cannon was the editor and compiler of Precedents of the House of Representatives by an act of Congress.

Clarence Cannon served as regent of the Smithsonian Institution from 1935 to 1964.

Clarence Cannon is interred in Elsberry City Cemetery, Elsberry, Missouri.