Tip O'Neill | |
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47th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives | |
In office January 4, 1977 – January 3, 1987 |
|
President |
Gerald Ford Jimmy Carter Ronald Reagan |
Preceded by | Carl Albert |
Succeeded by | Jim Wright |
House Majority Leader | |
In office January 3, 1973 – January 3, 1977 |
|
Deputy | John J. McFall |
Preceded by | Hale Boggs |
Succeeded by | Jim Wright |
House Majority Whip | |
In office January 3, 1971 – January 3, 1973 |
|
Leader | Hale Boggs |
Preceded by | Hale Boggs |
Succeeded by | John J. McFall |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts |
|
In office January 3, 1953 – January 3, 1987 |
|
Preceded by | John F. Kennedy |
Succeeded by | Joseph P. Kennedy II |
Constituency |
11th district (1953–1963) 8th district (1963–1987) |
Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives | |
In office 1949–1953 |
|
Preceded by | Frederick Willis |
Succeeded by | Charles Gibbons |
Minority Leader of the Massachusetts House of Representatives | |
In office 1947–1949 |
|
Preceded by | John Flaherty |
Succeeded by | Charles Gibbons |
Personal details | |
Born |
Thomas Phillip O'Neill Jr. December 9, 1912 Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Died | January 5, 1994 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
(aged 81)
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse(s) | Millie Miller |
Children | 4 (including Thomas) |
Education | Boston College (BA) |
Thomas Phillip "Tip" O'Neill Jr. (December 9, 1912 – January 5, 1994) was an American politician who served as the 47th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987, representing northern Boston, Massachusetts as a Democrat from 1953 to 1987. The only Speaker to serve for five complete consecutive Congresses, he is the third longest-serving Speaker in American history after Sam Rayburn and Henry Clay.
O'Neill was the third of three children born to Thomas Phillip O'Neill Sr. and Rose Ann (née Tolan) O'Neill in the Irish middle-class area of North Cambridge, Massachusetts, known at the time as "Old Dublin." His mother died when he was nine months old, and he was raised largely by a French-Canadian housekeeper until his father remarried when he was eight. O'Neill Sr. started out as a bricklayer, but later won a seat on the Cambridge City Council and was appointed Superintendent of Sewers. During his childhood, O'Neill received the nickname "Tip" after the Canadian baseball player James "Tip" O'Neill. He was educated in Roman Catholic schools, graduating in 1931 from the now defunct St. John High School in Cambridge, where he was captain of the basketball team; he was a lifelong parishioner at the school's affiliated parish church St. John the Evangelist Church. From there he went to Boston College, from which he graduated in 1936.