Profession Lawyer, politician | Name Robert Burns Resigned January 15, 1935 Died 1950 | |
Previous office Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma (1931–1935) | ||
Robert Burns (1874–1950) was an American attorney and politician from the U.S. state of Oklahoma. He served as Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma.
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Early life
Born on a tenant farm in Arkansas in 1874, Burns earned a law degree from the Nashville Law School in Nashville, Tennessee, before moving to Washita County in Oklahoma Territory in December 1902. He moved to Chickasha in 1905 and later Comanche, where he was elected as the first Stephens County attorney in 1907.
Political career
Burns moved to Oklahoma City in 1913 and was elected to the Oklahoma Senate in 1916. He was an unsuccessful candidate for governor in 1922.
Burns served as lieutenant governor from 1931 to 1935. He occasionally served as acting governor, as was the case when he set a $1,000 reward for the capture of Pretty Boy Floyd. Floyd wrote a letter to the governor threatening to rob him if he did not withdraw the reward.
Burns served in the state senate again from 1941 to 1948, before retiring to a private law practice. He died in 1950.