PATMAN, John William Wright, (father of William Neff Patman),
a Representative from Texas; born at Patmans Switch near Hughes
Springs, Cass County, Tex., August 6, 1893; attended the public schools; was
graduated from Hughes Springs (Tex.) High School in 1912 and from the law
department of Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn., in 1916; engaged in
agricultural pursuits in Texas in 1913 and 1914; was admitted to the bar in
1916 and commenced practice in Hughes Springs, Tex.; assistant county attorney
of Cass County, Tex., in 1916 and 1917; during the First World War served as a
private and later as a machinegun officer in the United States Army 1917-1919;
member of the State house of representatives 1921-1924; district attorney of
the fifth judicial district of Texas 1924-1929; elected as a Democrat to the
Seventy-first Congress; reelected to the twenty-three succeeding Congresses,
and served from March 4, 1929, until his death March 7, 1976, in Bethesda, Md.;
chairman, Select Committee on Small Business (Eighty-first, Eighty-second, and
Eighty-fourth through Eighty-seventh Congresses), Joint Economic Committee
(Eighty-fifth, Eighty-seventh, Eighty-ninth, Ninety-first and Ninety-third
Congresses), Joint Committee on Defense Production (Eighty-eighth, Ninetieth,
Ninety-second, and Ninety-fourth Congresses), Committee on Banking and Currency
(Eighty-eighth through Ninety-third Congresses); interment in Hillcrest
Cemetery, Texarkana, Tex.