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Tip O'Neil

Tip O'Neill
Tip O'Neill 1978.jpg
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.
(1912-12-09)December 9, 1912
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died January 5, 1994(1994-01-05) (aged 81)
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
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.


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