Appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt Preceded by Samuel B. Hill Political party Democratic Name Charles Leavy Party Democratic Party Resting place Tacoma | Preceded by Edward E. Cushman Nationality United States Spouse(s) Pearl Williams Leavy Role U.S. congressman Succeeded by Walt Horan | |
 | ||
Full Name Charles Henry Leavy Born February 16, 1884
York, Pennsylvania ( 1884-02-16 ) Died September 25, 1952, Tacoma, Washington, United States Education Western Washington University, University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law | ||
Charles Henry Leavy (February 16, 1884 – September 25, 1952) was a congressman from eastern Washington and a federal judge.
Born on a farm near York, Pennsylvania, Leavy moved to Kansas City, Missouri, with his parents in 1887. He attended the public schools of Missouri and the Warrensburg Normal School, the Bellingham Normal School in western Washington, and the Kansas City School of Law in Missouri. Leavy taught school in Missouri near Independence from 1903 to 1906, and in eastern Washington at Everson, Touchet, Kahlotus, and Connell from 1906 to 1913.
Leavy studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1912 and commenced practice in Newport in northeast Washington. He served as prosecuting attorney of Pend Oreille County from 1915 to 1918, and moved south to Spokane in 1918, where he was special assistant U.S. district attorney for eastern Washington 1918-1921. He was prosecuting attorney of Spokane County from 1922 to 1926, until elected a judge of the superior court of the State of Washington in November 1926, where he served ten years. He ran for the open U.S. Senate seat of Clarence Dill in 1934, but was unsuccessful in the primary against Lewis B. Schwellenbach, a Seattle attorney raised in Spokane, who easily won the general election over Reno Odlin of Olympia.
Leavy ran for an open seat in Congress in 1936 and was easily elected from Washington's 5th district as a Democrat. Re-elected in 1938 and 1940, Leavy's publicly stated ambition was to become a federal judge, and he was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Tacoma. Leavy resigned his house seat on August 1, 1942, and served ten years on the court, until his retirement on September 1, 1952. He had been diagnosed with a heart condition for over a year, and had a second paralytic stroke on September 11. Leavy died in Tacoma, September 25, 1952, and was interred in Mountain View Memorial Park in Tacoma.