Maury Maverick

Maury Maverick
159th Mayor of San Antonio
In office 1939–1941
Preceded by	C. K. Quin
Succeeded by	C. K. Quin
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 20th district
In office January 3, 1935 – January 3, 1939
Preceded by	District created
Succeeded by	Paul J. Kilday
Personal details
Born	Fontaine Maury Maverick (1895-10-23)October 23, 1895 San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
Died	June 7, 1954(1954-06-07) (aged 58)
Political party	Democratic
Relatives	Samuel Maverick (grandfather) Mary Adams (grandmother)
Alma mater	University of Texas, Austin
Occupation	Attorney
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	United States Army
Years of service	1917−1919
Rank	First Lieutenant
Unit	Infantry Branch
Battles/wars	World War I

Fontaine Maury Maverick Sr. (October 23, 1895 – June 7, 1954) was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Texas, representing the 20th district from January 3, 1935, to January 3, 1939.^[1] He is best remembered for his independence from the party and for coining the term "gobbledygook" for obscure and euphemistic bureaucratic language.^[2][3]

Background

Maverick was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Albert and Jane Lewis (Maury) Maverick. His paternal grandparents were Samuel Maverick, one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence and the source of the word maverick, and Mary Ann Adams Maverick. He studied at Texas Military Institute, the Virginia Military Institute, and the University of Texas. Maverick's ancestor is Samuel Maverick (colonist), who is one of the earliest settlers of Massachusetts, one of the largest original land owners, and the first to bring slaves to Massachusetts.

Career

Early years

Maverick was admitted to the bar in 1916 and practiced law in San Antonio. He was a first lieutenant in the infantry in World War I and earned the Silver Star and the Purple Heart. He served with the 28th Infantry Regiment, part of the 1st Division, and was involved in the Meuse–Argonne offensive.^[4]

In the 1920s, he was involved in the lumber and mortgage businesses.

Government service

From 1929 to 1931, he was the elected tax collector for Bexar County.

He was elected to the Seventy-fourth Congress in 1934,^[5] with support from the Hispanic population of his district, and re-elected in 1936 to the Seventy-fifth.^[6] During his 1934 campaign, Maverick enlisted Lyndon Johnson, a then little-known congressional secretary, to work for him during the Democratic primary.^[7] In the House, he was an ardent champion of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. He angered the conservative Democrats running the party back in Texas, including John Nance Garner.^{[citation needed]}

Maverick was the sole Texas Democrat to vote for the Anti-Lynching Bill of 1937.^[8]

A split between FDR and Vice president John Nance Garner over Supreme Court reorganization put Congressman Maverick in an extremely weakened position, leaving him unable to fund his reelection, which lead to his defeat in the primary for a third term in 1938. This was primally accomplished at the direction of Garner's reactionary Conservative allies in the district. Maverick returned to Texas where he was elected Mayor of San Antonio, again with support from minority voters, serving from 1939 to 1941, when he was labeled a Communist and defeated. Future president Johnson was running for senate and secretly made a pact with Maverick enemies: Johnson would help defeat Maverick if Maverick's enemies would back Johnson for senate. During World War II, he worked for the Office of Price Administration and the Office of Personnel Management, and served on the War Production Board and the Smaller War Plants Corporation.

While serving at the Smaller War Plants Corporation he sent a message to his staff telling them^[3]

Memoranda should be as short as clearness will allow... Put the subject matter--the point--and even the conclusion in the opening paragraph and the whole story on one page... Stay off the gobbledygook language. It only fouls people up...

Later years

After the war, he practiced law in San Antonio.

Personal and death

Maverick was a cousin of congressmen Abram Poindexter Maury and John W. Fishburne of Virginia and nephew of congressman James Luther Slayden of Texas, who married Ellen (Maury) at a Maury home called Piedmont in Charlottesville, Virginia, now part of the University of Virginia. They are related to Matthew Fontaine Maury, Dabney Herndon Maury, and the early and prominent Fontaine, Dabney, Brooke, Minor, Mercer, Herndon, Slaughter, and Slayden families of Virginia, Tennessee, and Texas.

He married Terrell Louise Dobbs and had a daughter and a son, San Antonio newspaper editorialist Maury Maverick, Jr. (who died in 2003 at the age of 82).

Maverick died on June 7, 1954. His widow later married the distinguished Texas author and historian Walter Prescott Webb.

Notes

References

• United States Congress. "Maury Maverick (id: M000263)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2008-01-25.
• Doyle, Judith Kaaz. Out of Step: Maury Maverick and the Politics of the Depression and the New Deal. Ph.D. diss., University of Texas at Austin, 1989.
• Henderson, Richard B. Maury Maverick: A Political Biography. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1970.
• Weiss, Stuart L. “Maury Maverick and the Liberal Bloc” Journal of American History 57 (March 1971): 880-95.
• American Notes & Queries: Gobbledygook talk: Maury Maverick's name for the long high-sounding words of Washington's red-tape language, 1944.
• Tuscaloosa News, of Alabama: The explanation sounds like gobbledeegook to me, 1945.
• Fontaine Maury Maverick from the Handbook of Texas Online
• Maury Family Tree (book) by Sue West Teague.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Maury Maverick.

• United States Congress. "Maury Maverick (id: M000263)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Maury Maverick at Find a Grave