Thomas Eagleton
| Tom Eagleton | |
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United States Senator from Missouri |
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In office December 28, 1968 – January 3, 1987 |
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| Preceded by | Edward V. Long |
| Succeeded by | Kit Bond |
| 38th Lieutenant Governor of Missouri | |
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In office January 11, 1965 – December 27, 1968 |
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| Governor | Warren E. Hearnes |
| Preceded by | Hilary A. Bush |
| Succeeded by | William S. Morris |
| 35th Attorney General of Missouri | |
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In office January 9, 1961 – January 11, 1965 |
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| Governor | John M. Dalton |
| Preceded by | John M. Dalton |
| Succeeded by | Norman H. Anderson |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Thomas Francis Eagleton September 4, 1929 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | March 4, 2007 (aged 77) St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Barbara Smith |
| Children | 2 |
| Education |
Amherst College (BA) University of Oxford Harvard University (LLB) |
Thomas Francis "Tom" Eagleton (September 4, 1929 – March 4, 2007) was a United States Senator from Missouri, serving from 1968 to 1987. He is best remembered for briefly being the Democratic vice presidential nominee under George McGovern in 1972. He suffered from bouts of depression throughout his life, resulting in several hospitalizations, which were kept secret from the public. When they were revealed it humiliated the McGovern campaign and Eagleton was forced to quit the race. He later became adjunct professor of public affairs at Washington University.
Eagleton was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Zitta Louise (Swanson) and Mark David Eagleton, a politician who had run for mayor. His paternal grandparents were Irish immigrants, and his mother had Swedish, Irish, French, and Austrian ancestry.
He graduated from St. Louis Country Day School, served in the U.S. Navy for two years, and graduated from Amherst College in 1950, where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Sigma Chapter). He then attended Harvard Law School. Following his graduation in 1953, Eagleton practiced law at his father's firm and later became associated with Anheuser-Busch's legal department.
Eagleton married Barbara Ann Smith of St. Louis on January 26, 1956. A son, Terence, was born in 1959, and a daughter, Christin, was born in 1963.
He was elected circuit attorney of the City of St. Louis in 1956. During his tenure, he appeared on the TV show What's My Line? (episode #355) as "District Attorney of St. Louis". (He stumped the panel.) He was elected Missouri Attorney General in 1960, at the age of 31 (the youngest in the state's history). He was elected the 38th Lieutenant Governor of Missouri in 1964, and won a U.S. Senate seat in 1968 unseating incumbent Edward V. Long in the Democratic primary and narrowly defeating Congressman Thomas B. Curtis in the general election.
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