James Michael Curley
| James Michael Curley | |
|---|---|
 |
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| 35th Mayor of Boston | |
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In office January 7, 1946 – January 5, 1950 |
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| Preceded by | John E. Kerrigan |
| Succeeded by | John Hynes |
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In office January 1, 1930 – January 5, 1934 |
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| Preceded by | Malcolm Nichols |
| Succeeded by | Frederick Mansfield |
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In office January 1, 1922 – January 5, 1926 |
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| Preceded by | Andrew James Peters |
| Succeeded by | Malcolm Nichols |
| Majority | 2,315 |
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In office January 1, 1914 – January 5, 1918 |
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| Preceded by | John F. Fitzgerald |
| Succeeded by | Andrew James Peters |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 11th district |
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In office January 3, 1943 – January 3, 1947 |
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| Preceded by | Thomas A. Flaherty |
| Succeeded by | John F. Kennedy |
| 53rd Governor of Massachusetts | |
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In office January 3, 1935 – January 7, 1937 |
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| Lieutenant | Joseph L. Hurley |
| Preceded by | Joseph B. Ely |
| Succeeded by | Charles F. Hurley |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 12th district |
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In office March 4, 1913 – February 4, 1914 |
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| Preceded by | John W. Weeks |
| Succeeded by | James A. Gallivan |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 10th district |
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In office March 4, 1911 – March 4, 1913 |
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| Preceded by | Joseph F. O'Connell |
| Succeeded by | William Francis Murray |
| Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from the 4th Suffolk district |
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In office 1902–1903 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
November 20, 1874 Boston, Massachusetts. U.S. |
| Died | November 12, 1958 (aged 83) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) |
Mary Emelda Herlihy (m. 1906; her death 1930) Gertrude Casey (m. 1937; his death 1958) |
| Children | 7 children 2 stepsons |
| Profession | Politician |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
James Michael Curley (November 20, 1874 – November 12, 1958) was an American Democratic Party politician from Boston, Massachusetts. One of the most colorful figures in Massachusetts politics in the first half of the 20th century, Curley served four terms as Democratic Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, including part of one while in prison. He also served a single term as Governor of Massachusetts, characterized by one biographer as "a disaster mitigated only by moments of farce", for its free spending and corruption.
Curley was immensely popular with working-class Roman Catholic Irish Americans in Boston, among whom he grew up and became active in ward politics. During the Great Depression, he enlarged Boston City Hospital, expanded the city's public transit system (now the MBTA), funded projects to improve the roads and bridges, and improved the neighborhoods with beaches and bathhouses, playgrounds and parks, public schools and libraries. He became a leading and at times divisive force in the state's Democratic Party, contesting for power with its White Anglo-Saxon Protestant leadership. He served two terms in the United States Congress, and was regularly a candidate for a variety of local and state offices for half a century. He was twice convicted of crimes, and notably served time for a felony conviction related to earlier corruption during his last term as mayor.
James Michael Curley was born in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood in 1874. Curley's father Michael left Oughterard,County Galway, Ireland, at the age of 14, and settled in Roxbury, where he met Curley's mother, Sarah Clancy, also from County Galway. Roxbury, originally an independent city, was annexed to Boston in 1868, and Michael Curley worked as a day laborer and foot soldier for ward boss P. James "Pea-Jacket" Maguire.
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