Representative Theodore Leonard Irving

Theodore Leonard Irving served as a Representative from Missouri in the United States Congress from 1949 to 1953. A member of the Democratic Party, Theodore Leonard Irving contributed to the legislative process during 2 terms in office.

Theodore Leonard Irving’s service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history. As a member of the House of Representatives, Theodore Leonard Irving participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of constituents.

Theodore Leonard Irving (March 24, 1898 – March 8, 1962) was a U.S. representative from Missouri. Born in St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota, Irving moved with his parents to a farm in North Dakota, where he attended the public schools. He worked for a railroad as a boy and during the First World War; later, he left the railroad to become manager of a theater in Montana. Irving then moved to California and was manager of a hotel. He moved to Jackson County, Missouri, in 1934 and was employed as a construction worker and later became a representative of the American Federation of Labor. Irving was elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-first and Eighty-second Congresses (January 3, 1949 – January 3, 1953). He was unsuccessful for reelection in 1952 and in a bid for the Democratic nomination in 1954. He once again became a labor organizer, and later was president of a labor union in Kansas City, Missouri. He died on March 8, 1962, in Washington, D.C., while on a business trip, and was interred in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Kansas City.