Representative James Andrew Haley

James Andrew Haley (January 4, 1899 – August 6, 1981) was an American World War I veteran, businessman, and Democratic politician who served 12 consecutive terms as a U.S. Representative from Florida from 1953 to 1977. Over nearly a quarter-century in the House of Representatives, he participated actively in the legislative process and represented the interests of his Florida constituents during a period of significant political and social change in the United States.

Haley was born in Jacksonville, Alabama, on January 4, 1899. He attended the public schools in Alabama and went on to study at the University of Alabama. His early life was shaped by the rural South at the turn of the twentieth century and by the onset of global conflict during his youth, experiences that would lead him into military service and later public life.

During World War I, Haley enlisted in the United States Army and served with Troop A, Second Cavalry. He saw combat in France beginning in April 1917 and served overseas for the duration of his military commitment. His wartime service established him as part of the generation of veterans who would later move into business and politics in the interwar and postwar years.

After the war, Haley settled in Florida, where he embarked on a career in business and civic affairs. From 1920 to 1933 he worked as an accountant in Sarasota, Florida. In 1933 he became general manager of the John Ringling estate, a position he held until 1943. On December 4, 1942, he married Aubrey Ringling (née Aubrey Barlow Black), the widow of Richard T. Ringling, who had died in 1931. Richard Ringling was the son of Alf T. Ringling, one of the original Ringling brothers, further connecting Haley to the prominent circus family and its enterprises.

Haley rose to senior leadership in the circus industry during the 1940s. From 1943 to 1945 he served as first vice president of Ringling Circus and as president and director of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. On July 6, 1944, a catastrophic fire broke out at a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performance in Hartford, Connecticut, killing 169 people. On the day of the fire, Haley was the highest-ranking executive traveling with the circus. In the ensuing legal proceedings, he and five other circus officials pleaded no contest to charges of involuntary manslaughter and were sentenced to prison. Haley served eight months and in 1945 was returned to Florida, where he received a pardon from Governor Millard F. Caldwell. He resumed work with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey from 1946 to 1948, and later engaged in newspaper publishing and then in the general printing business, maintaining his profile in Florida’s business community.

Concurrently with his business career, Haley became deeply involved in Democratic Party politics in Florida. He served as chairman of the Democratic executive committee of Sarasota County from 1935 to 1952, building local party organization and influence over nearly two decades. He was elected to the Florida House of Representatives, serving from 1949 to 1952, and was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1952, 1956, and 1960. These roles positioned him as a significant figure in state and regional politics and laid the groundwork for his election to national office.

Haley was elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-third Congress and to the eleven succeeding Congresses, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from January 3, 1953, to January 3, 1977. As a member of the House, he participated in the democratic process and contributed to the legislative work of Congress during a transformative era that encompassed the Cold War, the civil rights movement, and the expansion of federal social programs. In 1956 he was a signatory to the Southern Manifesto, a document signed by numerous Southern legislators opposing the desegregation of public schools ordered by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education. In the later phase of his congressional career, he rose to a key leadership role as chairman of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs in the Ninety-third and Ninety-fourth Congresses, where he exercised influence over legislation concerning public lands, natural resources, and U.S. territorial affairs. He chose not to be a candidate for reelection to the Ninety-fifth Congress in 1976, concluding 24 years of continuous service in the House.

After leaving Congress in January 1977, Haley retired from elective office. He remained associated with his longtime home of Sarasota, Florida. He died in Sarasota on August 6, 1981, and was interred in Boca Raton Cemetery in Boca Raton, Florida. In recognition of his military service and long tenure in public office, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in Tampa was named the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital (commonly referred to as the James A. Haley VA Medical Center) in his honor.