Maury Maverick

Maury Maverick
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Texas's 20th district
In office
January 3, 1935 – January 3, 1939
Preceded by District created
Succeeded by Paul J. Kilday
Mayor of San Antonio
In office
1939–1941
Preceded by C. K. Quin
Succeeded by C. K. Quin
Personal details
Born (1895-10-23)October 23, 1895
San Antonio, Texas
Died June 7, 1954(1954-06-07) (aged 58)
Political party Democratic
Alma mater University of Texas, Austin
Occupation Attorney
Religion Roman Catholic

Fontaine Maury Maverick (October 23, 1895 – June 7, 1954) was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Texas, representing the 20th district from January 3, 1935, to January 3, 1939.[1] He is best remembered for his independence from the party and for coining the term "gobbledygook" for obscure and euphemistic bureaucratic language.[2][3]

Biography

Maverick was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Albert and Jane Lewis (Maury) Maverick. His grandparents were Samuel Maverick, one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence and the source of the word maverick, and Mary Ann Adams Maverick. He studied at Texas Military Institute, the Virginia Military Institute, and the University of Texas. He was admitted to the bar in 1916 and practiced law in San Antonio. He was a first lieutenant in the infantry in World War I and earned the Silver Star and the Purple Heart. In the 1920s, he was involved in the lumber and mortgage businesses. From 1929 to 1931, he was the elected tax collector for Bexar County.

He was elected to the Seventy-fourth Congress in 1934, with support from the Hispanic population of his district, and re-elected to the Seventy-fifth. During his 1934 campaign, Maverick enlisted Lyndon Johnson, a then little-known congressional secretary, to work for him during the Democratic primary.[4] In the House, he was an ardent champion of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. He angered the conservative Democrats running the party back in Texas, including John Nance Garner.

He was defeated in the primary for a third term in 1938. He returned to Texas where he was elected Mayor of San Antonio, again with support from minority voters, serving from 1939 to 1941, when he was labeled a Communist and defeated. During World War II, he worked for the Office of Price Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, and served on the War Production Board and the Smaller War Plants Corporation. After the war, he practiced law in San Antonio.

He was a cousin of congressmen Abram Poindexter Maury and John W. Fishburne of Virginia and nephew of congressman James Luther Slayden of Texas, who married Ellen (Maury) at a Maury home called Piedmont in Charlottesville, Virginia, which is now a part of the U.Va. They are related to Matthew Fontaine Maury, Dabney Herndon Maury, and the early and prominent Fontaine, Dabney, Brooke, Minor, Mercer, Herndon, Slaughter, and Slayden families of Virginia, Tennessee, and Texas.

Maverick married Terrell Louise Dobbs and had a daughter and a son, San Antonio newspaper editorialist Maury Maverick, Jr., who died in 2003 at the age of 82.

Notes

  1. ↑ The Political Graveyard: Index to Politicians: Matthewson to Maxson
  2. ↑ A Way with Words, public radio's lively language show/
  3. ↑ United Press. "Gobbledygook? Lay Off It, Maverick Says". Pittsburgh Press, March 31, 1944, p. 2. Retrieved on May 30, 2013.
  4. ↑ Caro, Robert A. The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power. Vintage Books, 1981. p. 276

References

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by
District created		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Texas's 20th congressional district
1935–1939 		Succeeded by
Paul J. Kilday
Political offices
Preceded by
C.K. Quin		 Mayor of San Antonio, Texas
1939–1941 		Succeeded by
C.K. Quin
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