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Wallace White
White c. 1924
Senate Majority Leader
In office January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1949
Deputy	Kenneth S. Wherry
Preceded by	Alben W. Barkley
Succeeded by	Scott W. Lucas
Leader of the Senate Republican Conference
In office February 25, 1944 – January 3, 1949
Deputy	Kenneth S. Wherry
Preceded by	Charles L. McNary
Succeeded by	Kenneth S. Wherry
Chair of the Senate Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee
In office January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1949
Preceded by	Burton K. Wheeler
Succeeded by	Edwin C. Johnson
Senate Minority Leader
In office February 25, 1944 – January 3, 1947 Acting: February 25, 1944 – January 3, 1945
Deputy	Kenneth S. Wherry
Preceded by	Charles L. McNary
Succeeded by	Alben W. Barkley
Secretary of the Senate Republican Conference
In office January 3, 1941 – February 25, 1944
Leader	Charles L. McNary
Preceded by	Frederick Hale
Succeeded by	Harold Hitz Burton
United States Senator from Maine
In office March 4, 1931 – January 3, 1949
Preceded by	Arthur R. Gould
Succeeded by	Margaret Smith
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine's 2nd district
In office March 4, 1917 – March 3, 1931
Preceded by	Daniel J. McGillicuddy
Succeeded by	Donald B. Partridge
Personal details
Born	Wallace Humphrey White Jr. (1877-08-06)August 6, 1877 Lewiston, Maine, U.S.
Died	March 31, 1952(1952-03-31) (aged 74) Auburn, Maine, U.S.
Resting place	Mt. Auburn Cemetery
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Nina Lumbard
Relations	William P. Frye (grandfather)
Education	Bowdoin College (BA)

Wallace Humphrey White Jr. (August 6, 1877 – March 31, 1952) was an American politician and Republican leader in the United States Congress from 1917 until 1949. White was from the U.S. state of Maine and served in the U.S. House of Representatives before being elected to the U.S. Senate, where he was Senate Minority Leader and later Majority Leader before his retirement.

Background

White was born in Lewiston, Maine. His grandfather, William P. Frye, was also a prominent political figure, having served as a Senator from Maine and President pro tempore. In 1899, White graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick. After graduating, he became the assistant clerk to the Senate Committee on Commerce and later secretary to his grandfather. White studied law and was admitted to the bar, afterward beginning to practice in Lewiston.

Career

The political career of White began when he was elected as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1916. He took office on March 4 of the following year and served until March 3, 1931 (65th–71st Congresses). He left the House in 1931 after being elected to the Senate in late 1930.

In Congress, White served as chairman of the House Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Justice (66th Congress), the House Committee on Woman Suffrage (67th through 69th Congresses), the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries (70th and 71st Congresses), and the Senate Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce (80th Congress). He also served as a presidential appointee on a variety of commissions.

White was reelected in 1936 and 1942 and served from March 4, 1931, to January 3, 1949. He was elected minority leader by his colleagues (1944–1947), and became majority leader when his party held a majority in the 80th Congress (1947–1949). According to John Gunther's 1947 book Inside U.S.A., as the titular party floor leader, "his chief function is to hold the balance between two much more dominant and vivid men, Taft and Vandenberg...Everybody likes White; few people pay much attention to him."

White was one of a handful of senators who voted against the elevation of Hugo Black to the Supreme Court in 1937 based on his previous Klan membership.

He was not a candidate for renomination in 1948. In 1952, White died in Auburn and is interred at the Mt. Auburn Cemetery.

Family

White was married twice, first to Anna Pratt of Lewiston in 1903. One son, Herbert Frye White, was born in 1904. In 1914, Anna Pratt White and an infant daughter Helen Hayden White both died in childbirth. In 1917 White married widow Nina Lumbard Lunn. Nina Lunn was the widow of Ralph Lunn and she brought to the marriage a son, Richard Lunn and daughter, Nina Katherine Lunn.

References

1. "Senate Leaders: Wallace H. White- Powerless to his Party". U.S. Senate:Art & History Home >Senate Leaders. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
2. "Dons Robe of Supreme Court Justice in October", Nashua Telegraph, Aug. 18, 1937, p. 6

External links

• United States Congress. "Wallace H. White (id: W000396)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Wallace H. White at Find a Grave

v t e United States senators from Maine
Class 1	Holmes Parris Holmes Shepley Dana Williams Fairfield Moor Hamlin Nourse Hamlin Morrill Hamlin E. Hale Johnson F. Hale Brewster Payne Muskie Mitchell Snowe King
Class 2	Chandler Sprague Ruggles Evans Bradbury Fessenden Farwell Fessenden Morrill Blaine Frye Gardner Burleigh Fernald Gould White Smith Hathaway Cohen Collins

v t e United States Senate majority leaders
Lodge Curtis Watson Robinson Barkley White Lucas McFarland Taft Knowland Johnson Mansfield Byrd Baker Stevens (acting) Baker Dole Byrd Mitchell Dole Lott Daschle Lott Daschle Frist Reid McConnell Schumer Thune

v t e United States Senate minority leaders
Underwood Robinson McNary Austin McNary White Barkley Wherry Bridges Johnson Knowland Dirksen Scott Baker Byrd Dole Daschle Lott Daschle Lott Daschle Reid McConnell Reid Schumer McConnell Schumer

v t e Republican Party leaders in the United States Senate
Lodge Curtis Watson McNary Austin McNary White Wherry Bridges Taft Knowland Dirksen Scott Baker Dole Lott Frist McConnell Thune

v t e Chairs of the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
Commerce and Manufactures (1816–1825)	Hunter Sanford Dickerson
Commerce (1825–1947)	Lloyd Johnston Woodbury Forsyth King Silsbee Goldsborough Davis King Huntington Haywood Dix Hamlin Dodge Clay Chandler Conkling Gordon Ransom McMillan Frye Ransom Frye Nelson Clarke Fletcher Jones H. Johnson Stephens Copeland Bailey
Interstate Commerce (1887–1947)	Cullom Butler Cullom Elkins Clapp Newlands Smith Cummins Smith Watson Couzens Dill Wheeler
Interstate and Foreign Commerce/Commerce (1947–1977)	White E. Johnson Tobey Bricker Magnuson
Commerce, Science, and Transportation (1977–present)	Magnuson Cannon Packwood Danforth Hollings Pressler McCain Hollings McCain Hollings McCain Stevens Inouye Rockefeller Thune Wicker Cantwell Cruz

v t e Chairs of the United States House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries
Dunn Farquhar Fowler Fithian Payne Grosvenor Greene Alexander Scott White Davis Bland Bradley Weichel Bland Hart Weichel Bonner Garmatz Sullivan Murphy Ashley Jones Studds
Italics indicates acting chairman

• 1877 births
• 1952 deaths
• American Congregationalists
• Bowdoin College alumni
• Maine lawyers
• Politicians from Lewiston, Maine
• Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Maine
• Republican Party United States senators from Maine
• 20th-century United States senators
• 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives