Preceded by LaVern Dilweg Spouse(s) Barbara Preston Byrnes Resigned January 3, 1973 Political party Republican Party Republican Party | Succeeded by Harold A. Lytie Role U.S. representative Name John Byrnes | |
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Succeeded by Harold Vernon Froehlich Full Name John William Byrnes Born June 12, 1913
Green Bay, Wisconsin ( 1913-06-12 ) Died January 12, 1985, Marshfield, Wisconsin, United States Education University of Wisconsin Law School, University of Wisconsin-Madison | ||
Preceded by Michael F. Kresky, Jr. | ||
John William Byrnes (June 12, 1913 – January 12, 1985) was a U.S. Representative from Wisconsin.
Life and career
Byrnes was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the son of Harriet (Schumacher) and Charles W. Byrnes. Byrnes contracted polio as a small child. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1936, and then attended its law school. After graduation, Byrnes practiced law in Green Bay, and served as deputy commissioner of the state's department of banking from 1938 to 1941. He served in the state senate from 1941-1945, representing the 2nd District.
Byrnes was elected in 1944 as a Republican to the 79th Congress from Wisconsin's 8th district. He defeated one-term incumbent LaVern Dilweg, a notable former professional football player with the Green Bay Packers. Byrnes was reelected to the thirteen succeeding Congresses, and served 28 years from January 1945 to January 1973, making him the 8th district's longest serving representative. He was a candidate in the 1964 presidential election, winning two statewide primaries, Wisconsin and Maryland. He did not seek a fifteenth term in 1972 to the 93rd Congress.
After Congress, stayed in Washington to practice law and continued to reside in Arlington, Virginia. While traveling to Wisconsin for a medical check-up at the Marshfield Clinic, he suffered a stroke at the Central Wisconsin Airport in Mosinee and died several days later in Marshfield on January 12, 1985. He was buried in Green Bay at Allouez Catholic Cemetery.