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John L. McClellan
John Little McClellan (1896-1977) was an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a U.S. Representative (1935-1939) and a U.S. Senator (1943-1977) from Arkansa...view moreJohn Little McClellan (1896-1977) was an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a U.S. Representative (1935-1939) and a U.S. Senator (1943-1977) from Arkansas. At the time of his death, he was the second most senior member of the Senate and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He is the longest-serving senator in Arkansas history.
He was born on February 25, 1896 on a farm near Sheridan, Arkansas to Isaac Scott and Belle (née Suddeth) McClellan. His parents, who were strong Democrats, named him after John Sebastian Little, who served as a U.S. Representative (1894-1907) and Governor of Arkansas (1907). At age 12, after graduating from Sheridan High School, he began studying law in his father’s office. He was admitted to the state bar in 1913, when he was only 17. As the youngest attorney in the United States, he practiced law with his father in Sheridan.
During World War I, he served in the U.S. Army as a first lieutenant in the aviation section of the Signal Corps from 1917-1919. Following his military service, he moved to Malvern, where he opened a law office and served as city attorney (1920-1926). He was prosecuting attorney of the seventh judicial district of Arkansas from 1927-1930. In 1934, McClellan was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives from Arkansas’s 6th congressional district.
He served as senator from Arkansas from 1943-1977, when he died in office on November 28, 1977. During his tenure, he served as chairman of the Appropriations Committee and served 22 years as chairman of the Committee on Government Operations. He also served for 18 years as chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (1955-1973) and continued the hearings into subversive activities at U.S. Army Signal Corps, Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, where Soviet spies Julius Rosenberg, Al Sarant and Joel Barr all worked in the 1940s.view less