Glenn Andrews

Arthur Glenn Andrews (January 15, 1909 – September 25, 2008), usually known as Glenn Andrews, was at his death the oldest living former member of the United States Congress.

An Alabama Republican, Andrews represented the former Alabama's 4th congressional district (now mainly the Alabama's 3rd congressional district) in the United States House of Representatives. The districts centers on Andrews' birthplace of Anniston, the seat of Calhoun County in the northern portion of his state. Andrews became the oldest former member on November 10, 2007, with the death of former U.S. Representative Augustus Hawkins, a California Democrat.

Andrews attended public schools in Birmingham and attended John Herbert Phillips High School there. He then graduated from Mercersburg Academy, a boarding school in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. In 1931, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. He was associated with National City Bank of New York, 1931-1933; International Business Machines, 1933-1936; district manager of an Eastman Kodak subsidiary, 1936-1946; and was an advertising executive, from 1946-1970, excluding his single term in Congress.

Andrews was a Democratic candidate for the Alabama House of Representatives in 1956 and for secretary of state in 1958. Having switched parties, he was a delegate to the 1964 Republican National Convention held in San Francisco, where he was committed to the party's presidential nominee, then U.S. Senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona. He was elected to Congress on the Goldwater ticket, which easily prevailed over an unpledged elector slate in Alabama. U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson was not listed on the Alabama ballot. Andrews defeated seven-term Democrat Kenneth A. Roberts, 40,143 (58.6 percent) to 27,800 (40.6 percent). This may have seemed somewhat surprising; almost none of the district's living residents had been represented by a Republican before. However, as was the case in most of Alabama, most of the district's voters turned against the Democrats due to the national party's increasingly strong stand on civil rights. Four other Alabama Republicans were elected to the U.S. House with Andrews: James D. Martin of Gadsden, John Buchanan of Birmingham, William Dickinson of Montgomery, and Jack Edwards of Mobile.

Andrews served only in the 89th Congress. He and other Alabama members opposed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which passed after a controversial African American-led demonstration from Selma to the state capital at Montgomery. In 1966, Andrews was defeated for reelection by about the same margin that he had won in 1964. He was unseated by the Democratic State Senator Bill Nichols. Nichols received 54,515 votes (58.7 percent) to Andrews' 38,402 (41.3 percent).

For a time, Andrews chaired the Alabama Fourth Congressional District Republican Executive Committee. He sought to return to Congress in the 1970 general election, when Wallace ran unopposed for a second term as governor. He was overwhelmingly defeated by Nichols, who won 77,701 votes (83.7 percent) to Andrews' 13,217 (14.2 percent).

President Richard Nixon appointed Andrews a trustee in bankruptcy court, a position which he held from 1973-1985.

Upon Andrews' death, William H. Avery, the Republican governor of Kansas from 1965-1967, became the oldest living former member of Congress.

External links

• Glenn Andrews at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress