Theodore Leonard Irving (March 24, 1898 – March 8, 1962) was a U.S. Representative from Missouri.

Leonard Irving
Postcard photo from 1954 campaign for the US House
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Missouri's 4th district
In office
January 3, 1949 – January 3, 1953
Preceded byC. Jasper Bell
Succeeded byJeffrey Paul Hillelson
Personal details
Born
Theodore Leonard Irving

(1898-03-24)March 24, 1898
St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
DiedMarch 8, 1962(1962-03-08) (aged 63)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Resting placeMount Moriah Cemetery, Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic

Born in St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota, Irving moved with his parents to a farm in North Dakota, where he attended the public schools. He worked for a railroad as a boy and during the First World War; later, he left the railroad to become manager of a theater in Montana. Irving then moved to California and was manager of a hotel. He moved to Jackson County, Missouri, in 1934 and was employed as a construction worker and later became a representative of the American Federation of Labor.

Irving was elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-first and Eighty-second Congresses (January 3, 1949 – January 3, 1953). He was unsuccessful for reelection in 1952 and in a bid for the Democratic nomination in 1954. He once again became a labor organizer, and later was president of a labor union in Kansas City, Missouri.

He died on March 8, 1962, in Washington, D.C., while on a business trip, and was interred in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Kansas City.

Electoral history

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1948 Missouri's 4th congressional district
PartyCandidateVotes%
 DemocraticLeonard Irving74,72564.1%
 RepublicanRichard A. Erickson41,57635.7%
 ProgressiveR.D. Farnsworth2520.2%
 Socialist LaborKarl Oberheu110.01%
Majority
 Democratic hold
1950 Missouri's 4th congressional district
PartyCandidateVotes%
 DemocraticLeonard Irving53,42461.6%
 RepublicanVernon D. Fulcrut33,36738.4%
Majority
 Democratic hold
1952 Missouri's 4th congressional district
PartyCandidateVotes%
 DemocraticLeonard Irving84,89946.7%
 RepublicanJeffrey P. Hillelson96,98853.3%
Majority
 Republican gain from Democratic

See also

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References

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  • United States Congress. "Leonard Irving (id: I000037)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Missouri's 4th congressional district

1949–1953
Succeeded by