Thomas Sweeney (West Virginia politician)
Thomas Bell Sweeney Jr. (November 18, 1903 – September 8, 1973), was a Republican politician from the state of West Virginia.
Thomas Sweeney | |
|---|---|
| Member of the West Virginia Senate from the 1st district | |
| In office 1939–1942 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Thomas Bell Sweeney Jr. November 18, 1903 Wheeling, West Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | September 8, 1973 Orlando, Florida, U.S. |
| Resting place | Rock Creek Cemetery Washington, D.C. |
| Political party | Republican |
He was born in Wheeling, Ohio County, West Virginia. His father Thomas Bell Sweeney was the Wheeling agent of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, and lived in Washington, D.C.. after 1911.[1] His grandfather was John F. Sweeney, who had founded that agency in 1887 and managed it for seven years before his death. His great-grandfather Thomas Sweeney was a prominent early industrialist in Wheeling and served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly as a Whig. His ancestors John Bell and his son Robert Bell served in the Cumberland County, Pennsylvania militia in the American Revolution.
Sweeney was a member of the West Virginia Senate from the 1st District from 1939–42. He was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for the United States Senate in 1940, 1946 and 1954, and for the United States House of Representatives from the 1st District in 1968. He was also a delegate to the Republican National Convention from West Virginia in 1948, 1956 and 1960.
He died in Orlando, Florida and is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C..