60 Facts About Everett Dirksen

Everett McKinley Dirksen was an American politician.

Everett Dirksen helped write and pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, both landmark pieces of legislation during the civil rights movement.

Everett Dirksen was one of the Senate's strongest supporters of the Vietnam War.

Everett Dirksen won election to the Senate in 1950, unseating Senate Majority Leader Scott W Lucas.

Everett Dirksen developed a good working relationship with Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield and supported President Lyndon B Johnson's handling of the Vietnam War.

Everett Dirksen helped break the Southern filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Everett McKinley Dirksen was born on January 4,1896, in Pekin, Illinois, a small city near Peoria.

Everett Dirksen's parents were German immigrants from East Frisia near the Dutch border.

Everett Dirksen's father Johann Friedrich Dirksen was born in Jennelt and his mother Antje was born in Loquard.

Everett Dirksen's parents gave him the middle name "McKinley" after William McKinley, then a leading candidate for the Republican nomination for president.

Everett Dirksen had two older half-brothers, Thomas and Henry, from his mother's first marriage to Beren Ailts.

Johann and Antje Everett Dirksen spoke a Low German dialect at home and taught German to their children.

Johann Everett Dirksen farmed and worked at the Pekin Wagon Works as a design painter.

Everett Dirksen had a debilitating stroke when Everett was five years old and he died when Everett was nine.

Everett Dirksen grew up on a farm managed by his mother in a neighborhood called Bonchefiddle on the outskirts of Pekin.

Everett Dirksen attended local schools and graduated from Pekin High School in 1913 as the class salutatorian.

Everett Dirksen paid his tuition by working in the classified advertising department at the Minneapolis Tribune, as a door-to-door magazine and book salesman, as an attorney's assistant, and as a clerk in a railroad freight office.

Everett Dirksen gained his first political experience by giving local and on-campus speeches in support of Republican presidential nominee Charles Evans Hughes during the 1916 campaign.

Everett Dirksen dropped out of college to enlist in the United States Army.

On January 4,1917, his twenty-first birthday, Everett Dirksen joined the United States Army.

Everett Dirksen was deployed to France in 1918 and attended artillery school and officer training at Saumur.

Everett Dirksen was commissioned as a second lieutenant and assigned to the 328th Field Artillery Regiment, a unit of the 85th Division.

Everett Dirksen was trained as an aerial observer and conducted target acquisition and assessment of field artillery bombardments in the Saint-Mihiel sector as a member of the 328th Field Artillery's 13th and 19th Balloon Companies.

Everett Dirksen later performed the same duty for the 69th Balloon Company, a unit of the IV Corps.

Everett Dirksen subsequently served in the intelligence staff section of the IV Corps headquarters.

Everett Dirksen performed post-war occupation duty with IV Corps in Germany until mid-1919.

Everett Dirksen declined an opportunity to remain with the Army of Occupation, received his discharge, and returned to Pekin.

Everett Dirksen wrote a number of unpublished short stories, as well as plays with former classmate Hubert Ropp.

Everett Dirksen was active in the American Legion, and his appearances on its behalf gave him the opportunity to hone his public speaking skills.

Everett Dirksen placed first in field of eight candidates vying for four seats.

In 1930, Dirksen unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Representative William E Hull in the Republican primary.

Everett Dirksen was re-elected seven times from 1934 to 1946.

Everett Dirksen reversed his isolationist stance to support the war effort, but secured the passage of an amendment to the Lend Lease Act by introducing it while 65 of the House's Democrats were at a luncheon.

Everett Dirksen studied law privately in Washington, DC after he was elected to Congress.

Everett Dirksen was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar in 1936 and the bar of Illinois in 1937.

In December 1943, Everett Dirksen announced that he would be a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1944.

Everett Dirksen stated that a coalition of midwestern Republican representatives had urged him to run and that his campaign was serious.

Everett Dirksen received no votes for either office from delegates at the convention.

In 1947, Everett Dirksen was diagnosed with chorioretinitis in his right eye.

In 1950, Dirksen unseated Senate Majority Leader Scott W Lucas.

In 1952, Dirksen supported the presidential candidacy of fellow Senator Robert A Taft of Ohio, the longtime leader of the Republican party's conservative wing.

At the national party convention, Dirksen gave a speech attacking New York Governor Thomas E Dewey, a liberal Republican and the leading supporter of General Dwight Eisenhower.

Everett Dirksen's speech was met by cheers from conservative delegates and loud boos from pro-Eisenhower delegates.

Everett Dirksen successfully united the various factions of the Republican Party by granting younger Republicans more representation in the Senate leadership and better committee appointments.

Everett Dirksen held the position of Senate Minority Leader until his death.

Everett Dirksen was a leading "hawk" on the issue of the Vietnam War, a position he held well before President Johnson decided to escalate the war.

Now, Everett Dirksen never took that same hard-line position that I took.

Everett Dirksen voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957,1960,1964, and 1968, as well as the 24th Amendment to the US Constitution, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the US Supreme Court.

On March 22,1966, Dirksen introduced a constitutional amendment to permit public school administrators providing for organized prayer by students; the introduction was in response to Engel v Vitale, which struck down the practice.

Everett Dirksen was a firm opponent of the doctrine of one man, one vote on the grounds that large cities could render rural residents of a state powerless in their state governments without some form of concurrent majority.

Everett Dirksen died before enough states passed resolutions for the convention, by which point the court-ordered re-engineered legislatures began repealing their predecessors' resolutions.

On January 7,1967, Everett Dirksen became the oldest person to reach the Billboard Hot 100's top 40, at 71 years, 3 days old, when the single reached No 33; two weeks later it reached No 29.

Everett Dirksen made television guest appearances on game and variety shows, such as What's My Line, The Hollywood Palace and The Red Skelton Show.

Everett Dirksen made a cameo appearance in the 1969 film The Monitors, a low-budget science-fiction movie in which invading extraterrestrials assert political dominion over the human race.

Everett Dirksen was a member of the Second Reformed Church, which, although a Dutch Reformed Church, was primarily German.

Everett Dirksen was a Freemason and was a member of Pekin Lodge No 29.

Everett Dirksen was honored with the 33rd degree in 1954.

Everett Dirksen initially did well, but progressive complications developed into bronchopneumonia.

Everett Dirksen lay in state at the United States Capitol rotunda, followed by burial at Glendale Memorial Gardens in Pekin.

Everett Dirksen was known for his fondness for the common marigold.