James Pinckney Pope, served from 1933 to 1939

James Pinckney Pope was born on a farm near Jonesboro, Jackson Parish, Louisiana, on March 31, 1884. He attended the common schools and graduated from the Louisiana Polytechnic Institute in Ruston, Louisiana in 1906. He then graduated from the law department of the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois in 1909. He was admitted to the bar in 1909, and commenced practice in Boise, Idaho.

He was the deputy collector of internal revenue in 1916. He served as the city attorney of Boise from 1916 until 1917. He was the assistant attorney general of Idaho from 1918 to 1919, and a member of the board of education of Boise from 1924 to 1929. He served as mayor of Boise from 1929 until 1933, when he resigned, having been elected to Congress.

He was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1933, to January 3, 1939. He was unsuccessful candidate for re-nomination in 1938.

He was appointed a director of the Tennessee Valley Authority by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 and served in that capacity until 1951. He was associated with a law firm in Knoxville, Tennessee, and was a member of the board of directors, Federal Savings & Loan Association in Knoxville. He moved to Alexandria, Virginia, in 1963, where he resided until his death there on January 23, 1966.

He was buried in the Lynnhurst Cemetery, Knoxville, Tennessee.

Bibliography

Sims, Robert C. �James P. Pope, Senator from Idaho.� Idaho Yesterdays 15 (Fall 1971): 9-15.

Photos provided by the Idaho State Historical Society.  Biographical information compiled by Congressional Research Service.