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Wallace White
Whitec. 1924
United States Senator fromMaine
In office March 4, 1931 – January 3, 1949
Preceded by	Arthur R. Gould
Succeeded by	Margaret Chase Smith
Senate positions Senate Majority Leader In office January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1949 Deputy Kenneth S. Wherry Preceded by Alben W. Barkley Succeeded by Scott W. Lucas Leader of the Senate Republican Conference In office February 25, 1944 – January 3, 1949 Deputy Kenneth S. Wherry Preceded by Charles L. McNary Succeeded by Kenneth S. Wherry Chair of theSenate Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee In office January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1949 Preceded by Burton K. Wheeler Succeeded by Edwin C. Johnson Senate Minority Leader In office February 25, 1944[a] – January 3, 1947 Deputy Kenneth S. Wherry Preceded by Charles L. McNary Succeeded by Alben W. Barkley Secretary of the Senate Republican Conference In office January 3, 1941 – February 25, 1944 Leader Charles L. McNary Preceded by Frederick Hale Succeeded by Harold Hitz Burton
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMaine's2nd district
In office March 4, 1917 – March 3, 1931
Preceded by	Daniel J. McGillicuddy
Succeeded by	Donald B. Partridge
Personal details
Born	Wallace Humphrey White Jr. (1877-08-06)August 6, 1877 Lewiston, Maine, U.S.
Died	March 31, 1952(1952-03-31) (aged 74) Auburn, Maine, U.S.
Resting place	Mt. Auburn Cemetery
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Nina Lumbard
Relations	William P. Frye (grandfather)
Education	Bowdoin College (BA)

Wallace Humphrey White Jr. (August 6, 1877 – March 31, 1952) was anAmerican politician andRepublican leader in theUnited States Congress from 1917 until 1949. White was from the U.S. state ofMaine and served in theU.S. House of Representatives before being elected to theU.S. Senate, where he wasSenate Minority Leader and laterMajority Leader before his retirement.

White was born inLewiston, Maine. His grandfather,William P. Frye, was also a prominent political figure, having served as a Senator from Maine andPresident pro tempore. In 1899, White graduated fromBowdoin College inBrunswick. After graduating, he became the assistant clerk to theSenate Committee on Commerce and later secretary to his grandfather. White studied law and was admitted to the bar, afterward beginning to practice in Lewiston.

The political career of White began when he was elected as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1916. He took office on March 4 of the following year and served until March 3, 1931 (65th–71st Congresses).^[1] He left the House in 1931 after being elected to the Senate in late 1930.

In Congress, White served aschairman of the House Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Justice (66th Congress), the House Committee on Woman Suffrage (67th through 69th Congresses), the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries (70th and 71st Congresses), and the Senate Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce (80th Congress). He also served as a presidential appointee on a variety of commissions.

White was reelected in 1936 and 1942 and served from March 4, 1931, to January 3, 1949. He was elected minority leader by his colleagues (1944–1947), and became majority leader when his party held a majority in the 80th Congress (1947–1949). According toJohn Gunther's 1947 bookInside U.S.A., as the titular party floor leader, "his chief function is to hold the balance between two much more dominant and vivid men,Taft andVandenberg...Everybody likes White; few people pay much attention to him."

White was one of a handful of senators who voted against the elevation ofHugo Black to the Supreme Court in 1937 based on his previous Klan membership.^[2]

He was not a candidate for renomination in 1948. In 1952, White died inAuburn and is interred at the Mt. Auburn Cemetery.

White was married twice, first to Anna Pratt of Lewiston in 1903. One son, Herbert Frye White, was born in 1904. In 1914, Anna Pratt White and an infant daughter Helen Hayden White both died in childbirth. In 1917 White married widowNina Lumbard Lunn. Nina Lunn was the widow of Ralph Lunn and she brought to the marriage a son, Richard Lunn and daughter, Nina Katherine Lunn.

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• United States Congress."Wallace H. White (id: W000396)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Wallace H. White atFind a Grave

• 1877 births
• 1952 deaths
• American Congregationalists
• Bowdoin College alumni
• Maine lawyers
• Politicians from Lewiston, Maine
• Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Maine
• Republican Party United States senators from Maine
• 20th-century United States senators
• 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives

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