Armistead L. Boothe

Armistead Lloyd Boothe (September 23, 1907 - February 14, 1990) was a Virginia Democratic legislator representing Alexandria, Virginia in the Virginia General Assembly.

Early life and education

Boothe was born in Alexandria, Virginia on September 23, 1907 to Gardner Lloyd and Eleanor Harrison Carr Boothe.^[1] He attended Episcopal High School and graduated from the University of Virginia, receiving his A.B. in 1928. He was chosen as a Rhodes scholar in 1929 and received a B.A. in Jurisprudence from Oxford University in 1931.

In October 1931, Boothe commenced the practice of law in his father, Gardner L. Boothe's Alexandria firm Boothe, Dudley, Koontz, Blakenship & Stump. He served as a lawyer for the United States Department of Justice from 1934–1936, and was Alexandria City Attorney from 1938-1943. After serving in the United States Naval Reserve, 1943–1945, as an Air Combat Intelligence Officer, he returned to private practice.

In 1934 Boothe married Elizabeth Ravenel Peelle of Washington, D.C. and they had three daughters, Julie Perry, Eleanor Smith and Elizabeth Davis.

Political career

Boothe was elected to his first term in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1948 to which he was re-elected until 1955 and from 1956-1963 he represented Alexandria in the State Senate.^[2] While in the General Assembly, Boothe was classified as a "militant moderate" and is best remembered for his consistent fight after 1954 to keep open the public schools of Virginia in the face of the conservative Democrats' program of Massive Resistance to racial integration.^[3]

A lifelong Democrat, Boothe supported the Kennedy-Johnson campaign effort in Virginia in 1960. In 1961 he made an unsuccessful bid for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia on the ticket with Democratic candidates A. E. S. Stephens and T. Munford Boyd; they failed to secure the Democratic nomination. Boothe he lost a 1966 bid for the United States Senate to Harry F. Byrd, Jr. by a very small margin.

After his loss to Byrd, Boothe retired from the active political arena, although he headed Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 Presidential campaign in Virginia. Boothe concluded his career as Director of Development for Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria.

Death and legacy

Boothe died in Falls Church, Virginia in February, 1990. The City of Alexandria named a park in the Cameron Station subdivision after Armistead Boothe in 1999.

References

External links

• Armistead L. Boothe at Encyclopedia Virginia