Clarence Cannon

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Clarence Andrew Cannon (April 11, 1879 - May 12, 1964) was a Democratic Congressmember from Missouri. He was a notable parliamentarian and chaired the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations.

Born in Elsberry, Missouri, Cannon graduated from La Grange Junior College in Hannibal, Missouri in 1901, from William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri in 1903, and from the law school of the University of Missouri in Columbia in 1908. He worked as a professor of history at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri from 1904 to 1908. He was admitted to the bar in 1908 and commenced practice in Troy, Missouri.

In 1911 Cannon became a clerk in the office of the Speaker of the House. He showed much promise, and went on to work as the parliamentarian of the House of Representatives from 1915 to 1920, and the parliamentarian of the Democratic National Convention in 1920 (as he would again, forty years later). Cannon was elected as a Democrat to the House of Representatives, serving from March 4, 1923, until his death in Washington, D.C. in 1964. There he served as chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

Cannon was the author of A Synopsis of the Procedure of the House (1918), Procedure in the House of Representatives (1920), and Cannon’s Procedure (1928), subsequent editions of the latter being published periodically by resolutions of the House until 1963. He was the editor and compiler of Precedents of the House of Representatives (Cannon's Precedents) by an act of Congress. He also served as regent of the Smithsonian Institution from 1935 to 1964. He is interred in Elsberry City Cemetery, Elsberry, Missouri. The Clarence Cannon Dam on Mark Twain Lake in Monroe City, MO is named in his honor due to his involvement in securing funding for the dam's construction.

Preceded by Theodore W. Hukriede	Member of the United States House of Representatives from Missouri 1923–1964	Succeeded by William L. Hungate
Preceded by Edward T. Taylor	Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations 1941–1947	Succeeded by John Taber
Preceded by John Taber	Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations 1949–1953	Succeeded by John Taber
Preceded by John Taber	Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations 1955–1964	Succeeded by George H. Mahon

[edit] References

• Clarence Cannon at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Fulkerson, William M. (1969). A Rhetorical Study of the Appropriations Speaking of Clarence Andrew Cannon in the House of Representatives from 1923 to 1964; Ph.D. dissertation. 
• Jarvis, Charles A. (1990). Clarence Cannon, the Corn Cob Pipe, and the Hawley-Smoot Tariff. Missouri Historical Review 84 (January 1990), 151-65.