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John Stennis

John C. Stennis
Stennis3rd.jpg
President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate
In office
January 3, 1987 – January 3, 1989
Deputy George J. Mitchell
Preceded by Strom Thurmond
Succeeded by Robert Byrd
Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services
In office
January 3, 1969 – January 3, 1981
Preceded by Richard Russell
Succeeded by John Tower
United States Senator
from Mississippi
In office
November 5, 1947 – January 3, 1989
Preceded by Theodore Bilbo
Succeeded by Trent Lott
Member of the Mississippi House of Representatives
In office
1928-1932
Personal details
Born John Cornelius Stennis
(1901-08-03)August 3, 1901
Kemper County, Mississippi, U.S.
Died April 23, 1995(1995-04-23) (aged 93)
Jackson, Mississippi, U.S.
Political party Democratic
Spouse(s) Coy Hines
Children John Hampton Stennis
Margaret Jane Stennis Womble
Alma mater Mississippi A&M University
University of Virginia
Profession Politician, Lawyer
Religion Presbyterian

John Cornelius Stennis (August 3, 1901 – April 23, 1995) was a U.S. Senator from the state of Mississippi. He was a Democrat who served in the Senate for over 41 years, becoming its most senior member for his last eight years. He retired from the Senate in 1989.

Stennis was the son of Hampton Howell Stennis and Margaret Cornelia Adams. His great-grandfather John Stenhouse emigrated to Greenville, South Carolina from Scotland just before the American Revolution. According to family lore, the local residents would habitually mispronounce his name, forcing him to legally change it to Stennis.

Born in Kemper County, Mississippi, Stennis received a bachelor's degree from Mississippi State University in Starkville (then Mississippi A&M) in 1923. In 1928, Stennis obtained a law degree from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Kappa Psi, and Alpha Chi Rho Fraternity. While in law school, he won a seat in the Mississippi House of Representatives, in which he served until 1932. Stennis was a prosecutor from 1932 to 1937 and a circuit judge from 1937 to 1947, both for Mississippi's Sixteenth Judicial District.

Stennis married Coy Hines, and together, they had two children, John Hampton and Margaret Jane. His son, John Hampton Stennis (1935–2013), an attorney in Jackson, Mississippi, ran unsuccessfully in 1978 for the United States House of Representatives, defeated by the Republican Jon C. Hinson, then the aide to U.S. Representative Thad Cochran.


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