Percy Lee Gassaway

Percy Lee Gassaway
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Oklahoma's 4th district
In office January 3, 1935 – January 3, 1937
Preceded by	Tom D. McKeown
Succeeded by	Lyle Boren
Personal details
Born	August 30, 1885 Waco, Texas
Died	May 15, 1937 (aged 51) Coalgate, Oklahoma
Citizenship	United States
Political party	Democratic Party
Spouse(s)	Laura Weaver Gassaway Linnie Weeks Gassaway Loreta Rogers Gassaway Lillian Fooshee Gassaway
Children	Percy Lee Gassaway Benjamin Franklin Gassaway Suzanne Gassaway Throne
Profession	Attorney politician judge rancher

Percy Lee Gassaway (August 30, 1885 – May 15, 1937) was an American politician and a U.S. Representative from Oklahoma.

Biography

Born in Waco, McLennan County, Texas, Gassaway was the son of Rev. B. F. and Elizabeth Scoggins Gassaway. He moved to Fort Sill, Oklahoma (then Indian Territory), with his parents in 1899. A few years later the Gassaway family returned to Texas and purchased the Sinclair Ranch in Lipscomb County. He attended the public schools in Fort Sill and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He married Laura Weaver, and they had a daughter. Following a divorce, Gassaway traveled in the West and lived for a time in Mexico. Upon his return to the United States, he married Linnie Weeks, and the couple had two sons and a daughter. The marriage ended in divorce.^[1]

Career

In approximately 1915 Gassaway moved to Coalgate, Oklahoma, where he worked in a pool hall. George Trice, an eminent Oklahoma lawyer, took an interest in the young man and encouraged him to study law. Gassaway was employed as a clerk in a law office while he completed a law course and was admitted to the bar in 1918. During this time he married Loreta Rogers, but she soon died. In 1920 Gassaway married Lillian Fooshee. The couple had two daughters and a son and lived on a ranch near Coalgate. He commenced practice in Coalgate, Oklahoma as well as farming and ranching.

Gassaway was appointed county judge of Coal County, Oklahoma, in 1923, elected in 1924, and served until 1926. He served as district judge of the twenty-sixth judicial district from 1926 to 1934.^[2]

Elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-fourth Congress, Gassaway served from January 3, 1935 to January 3, 1937.^[3] He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1936, and resumed the practice of law and also engaged as a rancher near Coalgate, Oklahoma.

Death

Gassaway died in Coalgate, Coal County, Oklahoma, on May 15, 1937 (age 51 years, 258 days). He is interred at Coalgate Cemetery in Coalgate.^[4] He was a distant cousin of 1904 United States Vice-Presidential candidate and Senator from West Virginia Henry Gassaway Davis, being the grt-grt-grt-grt-grt-grandson and grt-grt-grt-grt-grandson respectively of early Maryland planter and politician Colonel Nicholas Gassaway.

References

1. "Percy Lee Gassaway". Oklahoma Historical Society. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
2. "Percy Lee Gassaway". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
3. "Percy Lee Gassaway". Govtrack US Congress. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
4. "Percy Lee Gassaway". The Political Graveyard. Retrieved 3 June 2013.

External links

• United States Congress. "Percy Lee Gassaway (id: G000094)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Percy L. Gassaway Collection and Photograph Collection at the Carl Albert Center
• Percy Lee Gassaway at Find a Grave
• Gassaway, Henry Griffith Jr., Gassaway: a history and genealogy of the descendants of Col Nicholas Gassaway, Birmingham, MI 1935
• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Gassaway, Percy