Burnet R. Maybank
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Burnet Rhett Maybank (March 7, 1899 - September 1, 1954) was a U.S. Senator and governor of South Carolina.
Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Maybank attended the public schools and graduated from Porter Military Academy and from the College of Charleston. He served in the United States Navy during World War I, and engaged in the cotton export business from 1920 to 1938.
Maybank was an alderman of Charleston from 1927 to 1931, and mayor of Charleston from 1931 to 1938. He is rarely credited for creating a successful, but personal, party machine unique to the South. As mayor, his Charleston based, patron-client structure beat political enemies, faced down the Great Depression, and propelled him to state and national prominence.
In addition, he was a member of the South Carolina State Advisory Board of the Federal Administration of Public Works from 1933 to 1934, and chairman of the South Carolina Public Service Authority from 1934 to 1939. He was also a member of the Board of Bank Control from 1933 to 1934. After all this, Maybank became the governor of South Carolina from 1939 to 1941.
On September 30, 1941, Maybank was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of James F. Byrnes. He was reelected in 1942 and 1948, and served in all from November 5, 1941 until his death in 1954. While in the Senate, Maybank served as chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency and as co-chairman of the Joint Committee on Defense Production. As chair of the Subcommittee on Independent Offices, under the Appropriations Committee, Maybank provided critical support to continue the US nuclear weapons program in the early 1950s.
He died at his summer home in Flat Rock, North Carolina, and was interred in Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston.
| Preceded by Olin D. Johnston |
Governor of South Carolina 1939 - 1941 |
Succeeded by Joseph Emile Harley |
| Preceded by Roger C. Peace |
United States Senator (class 2) from South Carolina 1941 - 1954 |
Succeeded by Charles E. Daniel |
| Preceded by Charles W. Tobey |
Chair, United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs 1949 - 1953 |
Succeeded by Homer Capehart |
| Served in Senate Alongside: Ellison D. "Cotton Ed" Smith, Olin D. Johnston | ||
| Governors of South Carolina |  |
|---|---|
| J. Rutledge • Lowndes • J. Rutledge • Mathews • Guerard • Moultrie • T. Pinckney • C. Pinckney • Moultrie • Vanderhorst • C. Pinckney • E. Rutledge • Drayton • J. Richardson • P. Hamilton • C. Pinckney • Drayton • Middleton • Alston • D. Williams • A. Pickens • Geddes • Bennett • Wilson • Manning I • Taylor • Miller • J. Hamilton • Hayne • McDuffie • Butler • Noble • Henagan • Richardson II • Hammond • Aiken • Johnson • Seabrook • Means • J. Manning • Adams • Allston • Gist • F. Pickens • Bonham • Magrath • Perry • Orr • Scott • Moses • Chamberlain • Hampton • Simpson • Jeter • Hagood • Thompson • Sheppard • Richardson III • Tillman • Evans • Ellerbe • McSweeney • Heyward • Ansel • Blease • Smith • Manning III • Cooper • Harvey • McLeod • Richards • Blackwood • Johnston • Maybank • Harley • Jefferies • Johnston • R. Williams • Thurmond • Byrnes • Timmerman • Hollings • Russell • McNair • West • Edwards • Riley • Campbell • Beasley • Hodges • Sanford |
[edit] Sources
- This article incorporates facts obtained from the public domain Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- Dictionary of American Biography
- Cann, Marvin. "Burnet Rhett Maybank and the New Deal in South Carolina, 1931-1941." Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1967
- U.S. Congress. Memorial Addresses. 83rd Cong., 2nd sess., 1954. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1955.
