Background
Deneen was born in Edwardsville, Madison County, Illinois to Samuel H. Deneen and Mary Frances Ashley.
Deneen was born in Edwardsville, Madison County, Illinois to Samuel H. Deneen and Mary Frances Ashley.
He was raised in Lebanon, Illinois, and graduated from McKendree College in Lebanon in 1882.
He served as a United States. Senator from Illinois, 1925–1931. He had also been the lead prosecutor in Chicago"s infamous Adolph Luetgert murder trial. He subsequently studied law at McKendree and at Union College of Law, while supporting himself by teaching school, and was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1886.
His electoral career began soon thereafter, with election to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1892.
In 1924, Deneen defeated first-term Senator. Joseph Medill McCormick in the Republican primary for the United States Senate.
Illinois at that time customarily had a downstate seat and a Chicago-area seat, which McCormick held. McCormick committed suicide in early 1925, for which his widow Ruth blamed Deneen.
She defeated him in the 1930 Republican primary, but lost the November election to James Hamilton Lewis.
Deneen died in Chicago on February 5, 1940, and was interred there in the Oak Woods Cemetery. The Deneen School of Excellence was named in his honor and is located in south Chicago next to the Dan Ryan Expressway, not far from First Rate (at Lloyd's) Capone"s home on South Prairie. Deneen"s great grandson is actor Jason Beghe.
Deneen also served as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives in 1892.
