Ralph Tyler Smith

Background

He was born on October 6, 1915 in Granite City, Illinois, United States, the son of Alfred Thomas Smith, a lumber company employee, and Clara Isabel Slattery.

Education

After attending public schools in his hometown and graduating from Granite City Community High School in 1933, Smith earned a B. A. from Illinois College in 1937 and attended Washington University Law School, graduating with an LL. D. in 1940.

Career

After studies he was admitted to the bar in both Missouri and Illinois and began the practice of law in Granite City. In 1941 Smith became assistant attorney for the Chicago and Illinois Midland (CIM) Railway Company in Springfield.

From 1942 to 1946 he served as an officer in the United States Navy. He was an instructor at the Naval Midshipman School at Notre Dame University, an executive officer on convoy escort in the Atlantic Ocean, and then commander of a motor gunboat in the Pacific theater of operations.

In 1946 Smith moved to Alton, Illinois, near St. Louis, where he practiced law and became involved in local Republican party politics. He was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1954. He was House majority whip from 1963 to 1964. In 1967 he was chosen speaker of the Illinois House and won reelection to that post in 1969.

In 1969 Smith managed the successful downstate election campaign of Republican gubernatorial candidate Richard B. Ogilvie. Following Ogilvie's inauguration in January 1969, Smith presided calmly over a rancorous legislative session in 1969 that passed the state's first income tax.

As a youth, Smith had dreamed of becoming a United States senator, and his opportunity arrived when Everett McKinley Dirksen, the powerful minority leader in the Senate, died in office in 1969. Smith was appointed by Ogilvie to fill Dirksen's unexpired term.

Smith faced a strong challenge from Adlai E. Stevenson III (son of the popular Illinois governor who was twice the Democratic nominee for president) in the 1970 special election. Smith attacked his challenger as personally weak, soft on crime, and sympathetic to student radicals. In a surprising turn of events, Stevenson won the support of Chicago's powerful mayor, Richard J. Daley. With Daley's support and an aggressive campaign of his own, Stevenson proved to be too strong for Smith. Despite relentless campaigning and supportive visits to Illinois by Nixon and Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew, Smith was defeated by more than half a million votes. The Republican party in Illinois also suffered a disastrous year, losing elections in counties that had not voted Democratic since the Civil War.

Following his election defeat Smith returned to Alton to practice law. But the campaign had exhausted him and he suffered a massive heart attack in March of 1971. He died in Alton.

Achievements

• Ralph Tyler Smith was famous as the member of Illinois House of Representatives, reelected to seven succeeding terms. Smith supported legislation to curb air and water pollution, build roads, and crack down on rioters and looters in disturbances in Chicago. He also participated in passage of the state's first income tax.

Politics

A partisan Republican, Smith enthusiastically supported the "new federalism" of Richard Nixon, including proposals for welfare reform, sharing federal tax revenue with the states, and a national lottery to replace the existing military draft.

Views

Quotations: "I don't delude myself into thinking I'm another Dirksen, " Smith stated, "but I think I can bring something to the Senate. "

Personality

He was a popular and effective legislator, skilled in political oratory and the art of compromise.

Connections

In 1942 he married Mary Elizabeth Anderson of Granite City; they had one child.

Father:

Alfred Thomas Smith

Mother:

Clara Isabel Slattery

Spouse:

Mary Elizabeth Anderson

political enemy:

Richard J. Daley

political enemy:

Adlai E. Stevenson III