Philip A. Bennett

Philip A. Bennett was born near Buffalo, Missouri, to Marion F. and Mary Jane (O'Bannon) Bennett, the eighth of fourteen children.^[1] Following his graduation from Buffalo High School Bennett attended Springfield Normal and Business College (now Missouri State University), earning his degree in 1902.^[2] He taught two years in Missouri public schools and worked for the Frisco Railroad before purchasing the Buffalo Reflex newspaper in 1904. Bennett served as the editor and publisher of the Reflex until 1921, when he entered politics full-time. Bennett served as a delegate to the 1912 Republican National Convention. Philip Bennett married Mary B. Tinsley in 1912 and they had two children, a son and a daughter. His son Marion T. Bennett followed in his father's footsteps as a Missouri politician.^[3]

In 1920 he was elected to the Missouri Senate. Bennett served only one term because he ran for, and won election as, Missouri lieutenant governor in 1924. He was not successful in a bid for Missouri Governor in 1928 and returned to the private business sector. Bennett ran for the U.S. House in 1938 and was again defeated. However two years later, in 1940, he was elected to represent the 6th district of Missouri in the U.S. Congress.^[4] Reelected in November 1942, Bennett died before he could begin his second term. His son, Marion T. Bennett, completed the term. Philip Bennett died in Washington, D.C., on December 7, 1942, shortly before the beginning of his second term in Congress.

• List of United States Congress members who died in office (1900–1949)

• United States Congress. "Philip A. Bennett (id: B000380)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.