Dewey F. Bartlett
19th Governor of Oklahoma
In office
January 9, 1967 – January 11, 1971
LieutenantGeorge Nigh
Preceded byHenry Bellmon
Succeeded byDavid Hall
United States Senator
from Oklahoma
In office
January 3, 1973 – January 3, 1979
Preceded byFred R. Harris
Succeeded byDavid Boren
Member of the Oklahoma Senate
In office
1962–1966
Personal details
Born
Dewey Follett Bartlett

(1919-03-28)March 28, 1919
Marietta, Ohio, U.S.
DiedMarch 1, 1979(1979-03-01) (aged 59)
Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.
Cause of deathLung cancer
Resting placeCalvary Cemetery
36°01′46.3″N 95°56′04.4″W / 36.029528°N 95.934556°W / 36.029528; -95.934556 (Dewey F. Bartlett Burial Site)
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
​
(m. 1945)​
Children3, including Dewey Jr.
Alma materPrinceton University
ProfessionOilman
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch/service United States Marine Corps
Years of service1942-1946
RankCaptain
Battles/warsWorld War II
AwardsAir Medal

Dewey Follett Bartlett Sr. (March 28, 1919 – March 1, 1979) was an American politician who served as the 19th governor of Oklahoma from 1967 to 1971, following his fellow Republican, Henry Bellmon. In 1966, he became the first Roman Catholic elected governor of Oklahoma, defeating the Democratic nominee, Preston J. Moore of Oklahoma City. He was defeated for reelection in 1970 by Tulsa attorney David Hall in the closest election in state history. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1972 and served one term. In 1978, he was diagnosed with lung cancer and did not run for reelection that year. He died of complications of lung cancer two months after retiring from the Senate in 1979.[1]

Early life

Dewey Follett Bartlett was born to David A. and Jessie Bartlett in Marietta, Ohio, and attended schools in Marietta and Lawrenceville, New Jersey.[1] Bartlett graduated from Princeton University with an undergraduate degree in geological engineering in 1942 after completing his senior thesis, titled "Water-flooding an oil formation", under the supervision of Glenn L. Jepsen and Kenneth DePencier Watson.[2] Bartlett was the president of his senior class while a student at Princeton.[3]

Following graduation from Princeton, Bartlett enlisted in the Navy; then served in the U.S. Marine Corps as a dive bomber during World War II in the Pacific theatre.[3] After the war, he moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he held various jobs in farming, ranching, and the oil industry, inheriting ownership of the Tulsa-based Keener Oil and Gas Company from his father, David A. Bartlett.

Political career

Prior to becoming governor, Bartlett served in the Oklahoma Senate from 1962 to 1966.[4]

As governor, he made major changes to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, pushed for school consolidation, and vetoed a school code bill.[5] In 1970, he was the first Oklahoma governor eligible to seek a second term.[5] In the general election, he was challenged by then-Tulsa County Attorney David Hall. In the closest gubernatorial election in state history, Hall unseated Bartlett by a vote of 338,338 to 336,157.[6]

Following his defeat for reelection as governor, he served for one term in the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 1979 after winning the seat previously held by Democrat Fred R. Harris. He narrowly defeated U.S. Congressman Ed Edmondson in the 1972 election riding on President Richard Nixon's coattails. During his tenure in Congress, he took a conservative stance on most issues and championed oil and gas interests during the energy crisis of the 1970s. However, he suffered health problems and, rather than face a very difficult reelection against popular Democratic Governor David Boren, decided not to seek reelection. Two months after retiring from the U.S. Senate, he died in Tulsa from complications of lung cancer, and is buried in the city's Calvary Cemetery. In 1990 he was inducted into the Oklahoma CareerTech Hall of Fame[7] and in March, 2006, Congress passed a bill renaming the U.S. Post Office in Tulsa in his honor.[8]

Family

Bartlett married Ann Smith, a native of Seattle, Washington on April 2, 1945 at Mission San Juan Capistrano in San Juan Capistrano, California.[9] They had three children: Dewey F. Bartlett Jr., Michael and Joanie.[1]

His son, Dewey F. Bartlett Jr. served as mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma, from 2009 until losing reelection to G. T. Bynum in 2016,[10] served as a member of the Tulsa City Council from 1990 to 1994, and has inherited the Keener Oil and Gas Company from his father.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Burke, Bob. Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. "Bartlett, Dewey Follett (1919 - 1979)." Retrieved November 23, 2012. Archived November 15, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ↑ Bartlett, Dewey F. (1942). Water-flooding an oil formation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, Department of Geological Engineering.
  3. 1 2 "BARTLETT, DEWEY FOLLETT (1919–1979)". Oklahoma Historical Society. Retrieved January 27, 2018.
  4. ↑ Who is Who in the Oklahoma Legislature: 29th-36th, 1963-1978 Legislative Reference and Research Division, 1963.
  5. 1 2 Hudson, Geneva Johnston (AuthorHouse, 2005). Statesman or Rogue: Elected to Serve. ISBN 1-4208-2503-8
  6. ↑ Cached biography from Oklahoma Department of Libraries Archived March 12, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ Gov. Dewey Bartlett Archived May 2, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Oklahoma CareerTech Hall of Fame (accessed 2014-04-22).
  8. ↑ "Congressman John Sullivan - Oklahoma's First District". Archived from the original on March 30, 2006. Retrieved June 26, 2006.
  9. ↑ Stanley, Tim. Ann Bartlett, former first lady, dies at 92, Tulsa World as published in The Oklahoman, January 27, 2013. (accessed June 30, 2013)
  10. ↑ "GT Bynum Defeats Incumbent Bartlett for Tulsa Mayor".

Further reading

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.