 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Bruce Alger" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(November 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Bruce Alger | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromTexas's5th district | |
| In office January 3, 1955 – January 3, 1965 | |
| Preceded by | Joseph Franklin Wilson |
| Succeeded by | Earle Cabell |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Bruce Reynolds Alger (1918-06-12)June 12, 1918 Dallas, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | April 13, 2015(2015-04-13) (aged 96) Palm Bay, Florida, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 5 |
| Alma mater | Princeton University |
| Occupation | Real estate broker |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Army |
| Years of service | 1941–1945 |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Bruce Reynolds Alger (June 12, 1918 – April 13, 2015) was an American politician, real estate agent and developer, and aRepublicanU.S. representative fromTexas, the first to have represented aDallas district sinceReconstruction. He served from 1955 until 1965. Though born in Dallas, Alger was raised inWebster Groves, Missouri, a small suburb ofSt. Louis.
Alger was the son of David Bruce Alger, a bank representative, and the former Clare Freeman, an aspiring poet and writer.[1] He attendedPrinceton University inPrinceton,New Jersey on a scholarship. There he studiedphilosophy,art, andmusic and was a center for thefootball team. Alger graduated from Princeton with an A.B. in philosophy in 1940 after completing a 73-page long senior thesis titled "Chinese Painting."[2] he went to work for theRCA Corporation as a field representative.[citation needed]
With the coming ofWorld War II, Alger joined theUnited States Army and was assigned to Squadron 5 at the Army Air Corps Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field inSan Antonio, Texas.[3] He flew bombers and attained the rank ofcaptain, claiming to be among the first U.S. troops in Japan after the conclusion of the war in August 1945.[3] He received theDistinguished Flying Cross.[citation needed] On his return to civilian life, RCA refused to rehire him on the grounds that he had been out of television production for too long.[citation needed]
In 1943, he married his first wife, Lucille "Lynn" Antoine.[4]
In April 2013, Alger self-published a book on his experience in World War II;The Crew Book - Miss America '62. The B-29 that Alger piloted was named "Miss America '62" after his daughter who would turn 18 in 1962. The book details the crew's experience through training, combat, and eventually the surrender of Japan.[citation needed]
In 1945, Alger moved to Dallas and formed his own real estate and land development company. He was chosen as the first president of the White RockChamber of Commerce.[citation needed]
In 1950, Alger announced the development of a 180-lot subdivision in Far East Dallas off Peavy Road which was to bear his name, and is known as Alger Park. Alger continued to support the development after being elected to Congress, even speaking at ceremonies for the neighborhood.[citation needed]
 | This sectionmay beunbalanced towards certain viewpoints. Pleaseimprove the article or discuss the issue on thetalk page.(July 2022) |
In 1954, Alger became the Republican candidate forU.S. House of Representatives forTexas's 5th congressional district. Considering his state's Democratic tradition, it was unexpected that Alger would win. He received 27,982 ballots (52.9 percent) to DemocratWallace H. Savage's 24,904 (47.1 percent). He was the only Republican in the Texas delegation for eight years until 1963, whenEd Foreman ofOdessa, later of Dallas, joined Alger for the final two years of his tenure.
Alger served during the heyday of theLyndon B. Johnson andSam Rayburn era. As a Republican, and a stronglyconservative Republican at that, he was the odd man out in the Texas delegation of the day. Alger considered himself an individualist, aconstitutionalist, and a man of principles. Critics, however, equated his principles to stubbornness.
His belief inlimited government conflicted with many of his colleagues, who expected to trade for votes on various issues and projects, something he refused to do. In the era ofcivil rights, he believed that solutions lay with local, not national government. He maintained that the national government should concentrate on defense and foreign affairs. He believed that the responsibility for social programs belonged at the local level. He was the only member of the House, for example, to oppose the popularschool lunch program. Despite being in the majority of the Texas delegation to decline to sign the 1956Southern Manifesto opposing the desegregation of public schools ordered by the Supreme Court inBrown v. Board of Education, Alger voted against theCivil Rights Acts of 1957,[5]1960,[6] and1964,[7] as well as the24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.[8]
According toTime magazine (January 6, 1958), Alger assessed the upcoming second session of the Democratic 85th Congress in a pessimistic but resolved vein: "I foresee bitterness and hatefulness... We are going to squabble and fight and make the world think we hate each other and that we can't solve our problems. We are going to have bigger and bigger budgets, higher taxes, more government spending at home and abroad, and moreinflation accompanied by deficit financing. Happy New Year!"[9]
In 1960, Alger organized a protest at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas against Lyndon Johnson, by then theU.S. Senate majority leader, who was campaigning to becomevice president asJohn F. Kennedy's running mate. Alger held a placard which stated, "LBJ Sold Out to YankeeSocialists." The rally turned ugly, andLady Bird Johnson was spat upon by a protestor,[10] and her white gloves were yanked from her and thrown into a gutter. Vice PresidentRichard M. Nixon believed that the "Mink Coat Mob" incident caused him tolose Texas's then twenty-four electoral votes to Kennedy and Johnson. ColumnistsRowland Evans andRobert Novak said that the protest also affected the votes of white southerners in other states. Nixon later said, "Well, we lost Texas in 1960 because of that a**hole congressman in Dallas".[9]House SpeakerSam Rayburn particularly disliked Alger and was often brutal towards the Republican "interloper" in the Texas delegation.[11]
In 1956 and 1958, Alger defeated two Democrats who later became well-known names in the state. In 1956, he edgedHenry Wade, the Dallas Countydistrict attorney who emerged seventeen years later as the defendant in theRoe v. Wadeabortion case. Alger polled 102,380 (55.6 percent) to Wade's 81,705 (44.4 percent).[12] In 1958, a heavily Democratic year nationally, Alger defeatedBarefoot Sanders, 62,722 (52.6 percent) to 56,566 (47.4 percent).[13] Sanders was the unsuccessful Democratic nominee against SenatorJohn Tower in 1972 and was later appointed aU.S. District Judge by PresidentJimmy Carter.
In 1962, Alger won his last term in the House with 89,938 votes (56.3 percent) to Democrat Bill Jones' 69,813 (43.7 percent). Alger was unseated in the 1964 general election by the formermayor of Dallas, DemocratEarle Cabell. Alger polled 127,568 ballots (only 42.5 percent), a considerable number of votes in a House election. Yet, turnout was so much higher in 1964 than in 1962 that Alger lost even though he polled nearly 40,000 more votes in the latter year than in the former. Cabell prevailed with 172,287 (57.5 percent). Alger's defeat can be attributed to:
In a 1971 interview with the historianJoe B. Frantz of theUniversity of Texas, John Tower discussed his relationship with Alger, noting that Tower would have deferred to Alger in the 1961 special U.S. Senate election had Alger wanted to run:
"Bruce and I got along very well together. Bruce is a very inflexible man and a suspicious man. He questioned the intellectual honesty of men like Mr. Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson, and so he just didn't make any friends. I have never yet publicly said one disparaging word about a fellow member of the Texas delegation, and don't intend to, although some of them have been inclined to say things about me publicly from time to time. I won't respond."[14]
After a decade in Congress, Alger resumed working as a real estate broker. He formed Bruce Alger Real Estate in 1973. The company had offices in Dallas' One North Park building.[15] He moved for a time toFlorida but returned to Dallas in 1976. Alger resided inCarrollton, which is located in three Dallas-area counties. He remained out of the political limelight except for a few public appearances. Alger'scongressional papers are located in the archives section of the Dallas Public Library.[16]
Alger was divorced in 1961 from Lucille "Lynn" Antoine, who said that politics caused an estrangement in the marriage to the point that they had little in common except for a liking forgin rummy. The couple had three children, Jill Alger ofThe Villages inSumter County in central Florida and sons David and Steven, who died in 1964 and 2012, respectively. Alger's second wife, the former Priscilla Jones, also died in 2012, after thirty-six years of marriage. He had two step-children inMassachusetts, Robert Jones ofAmherst and Laura Jones ofChatham. Alger had seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.[9] He retired in 1990 and spent ten years with his wife Priscilla traveling around the United States in a recreational vehicle. The couple settled in 2000 inBarefoot Bay inBrevard County nearMelbourne on the central section of the Atlantic Coast of Florida.[9]
On April 13, 2015, Alger died ofheart disease at the age of ninety-six at an assisted living facility inPalm Bay, also in Brevard County, Florida.[9]
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | United States Representative for the 5th Congressional District of Texas 1955–1965 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
