Claude Ignatius Bakewell (August 9, 1912 – March 18, 1987) was an American lawyer,

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

from

Missouri's 11th congressional district The 11th congressional district of Missouri was a congressional district for the United States House of Representatives in Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. ...

, and U.S.

Postmaster A postmaster is the head of an individual post office, responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office. When a postmaster is responsible for an entire mail distribution organization (usually sponsored by a national government), ...

for

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, whic ...

Early life and career

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Bakewell was one of the five children of Paul Bakewell, Jr. and Mary Morgan (née Fullerton) Bakewell. Mary Fullerton was reportedly "the richest girl" in St. Louis, daughter of

Joseph Scott Fullerton Joseph Scott Fullerton (December 3, 1835 – March 20, 1897) was an American lawyer, officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War, and a leader for a short time at the Freedmen's Bureau during the Reconstruction Era. In his later ye ...

and a grand-niece of

J. P. Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became know ...

. His grandfather, Paul Bakewell, was a patent and trademark lawyer in the firm Bakewell & Church whose wife was a granddaughter of the first Missouri governor

Alexander McNair Alexander McNair (May 5, 1775 – March 18, 1826) was an American frontiersman and politician. He was the first Governor of Missouri from prior to its entry as a state in 1820, until 1824. Early life Alexander McNair was born in Lancaster ...

. Claude Bakewell's great-grandfather was a Missouri judge, Robert Armytage Bakewell, who was married to Nancy de Laureal. Claude Bakewell graduated from

St. Louis University High School St. Louis University High School (SLUH) is a Jesuit Catholic high school for boys. Founded in 1818, it is the oldest secondary educational institution in the U.S. west of the Mississippi River, and one of the largest private high schools in Miss ...

and then in 1932 from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

. In 1935, he graduated from

St. Louis University School of Law Saint Louis University School of Law, also known as SLU LAW, is a private American law school located in St. Louis, Missouri. It is one of the professional graduate schools of Saint Louis University. The University hosted a law school briefly fro ...

and became a lawyer in private practice. In the 25th Ward, he served as member of the board of aldermen of St. Louis, Missouri from 1941–45 and was chairman of the legislation committee. From 1944 to 1946, Bakewell served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Congress

Bakewell sat on the

House Judiciary Committee The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, also called the House Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is charged with overseeing the administration of justice within the federal courts, ...

while serving. In 1952, Bakewell was one of three representatives who opposed bringing an unamended bill by Representatives

Joseph Bryson Joseph Raleigh Bryson (January 18, 1893 – March 10, 1953) was a U.S. Representative from South Carolina. Born in Brevard, North Carolina, Bryson moved, with his parents, to Greenville, South Carolina, in 1900. He attended the public schools. ...

and

Estes Kefauver Carey Estes Kefauver (; July 26, 1903 – August 10, 1963) was an American politician from Tennessee. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1939 to 1949 and in the Senate from 1949 until his ...

to the House floor. That bill would have required

royalty Royalty may refer to: * Any individual monarch, such as a king, queen, emperor, empress, etc. * Royal family, the immediate family of a king or queen regnant, and sometimes his or her extended family * Royalty payment for use of such things as int ...

fees for

jukebox A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media. The classic jukebox has buttons, with letters and numbers on them, which are used to selec ...

es that played music on disks. Bakewell was the only Republican who signed the

minority report Minority Report may refer to: * Minority report (Poor Law), published by the UK Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress 1905–09 * "Minority Report", a 1949 science fiction short story by Theodore Sturgeon * "The Minority Report" ...

of House Bill 4484, a

quitclaim Generally, a quitclaim is a formal renunciation of a legal claim against some other person, or of a right to land. A person who quitclaims renounces or relinquishes a claim to some legal right, or transfers a legal interest in land. Originally a c ...

bill regarding

tidelands Tidelands are the territory between the tide line of sea coasts, and lands lying under the sea beyond the low-water limit of the tide, considered within the territorial waters of a nation. The United States Constitution does not specify wheth ...

, because he felt that it empowered Congress to remove the sovereignty of U.S. public lands rather than disposing of the lands themselves. Responding to an anti-segregation plan by the St. Louis Committee of Racial Equality by sending interracial dining groups to three mall restaurants, Bakewell wrote: "It appears utterly inconsistent that the department stores would welcome the patronage of a large segment of the population at all counters and in all departments but would arbitrarily exclude them from the dining facilities."

Electoral history

Bakewell was elected as a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or again ...

to the

80th United States Congress The 80th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1947, ...

in 1946.

Phyllis Schlafly Phyllis Stewart Schlafly (; born Phyllis McAlpin Stewart; August 15, 1924 – September 5, 2016) was an American attorney, conservative activist, author, and anti-feminist spokesperson for the national conservative movement. She held paleocon ...

, conservative activist and founder of

Eagle Forum Eagle Forum is a conservative interest group in the United States founded by Phyllis Schlafly in 1972 and is the parent organization that also includes the Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Fund and the Eagle Forum PAC. The Eagle Forum h ...

, managed Bakewell's 1946 campaign. However, Bakewell lost his 1948 re-election bid to

John B. Sullivan John Berchmans Sullivan (born Sedalia, Missouri October 10, 1897 – died Bethesda, Maryland January 29, 1951) was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Missouri. He was a Democrat. He was married to Leonor Kretzer Sulli ...

, a Democrat. Following the death of Sullivan, Bakewell was re-elected to the 11th district seat in a special election in March 1951. Bakewell linked his Democratic opponent Harry Schendel to the political machine dominated by

Morris Shenker Morris A. Shenker (January 10, 1907 – August 9, 1989) was an American lawyer best known for his connections to labor leader Jimmy Hoffa and Teamster funding of Las Vegas in the 1960s. Shenker was a Russian Jewish immigrant who arrived in St. Lo ...

and Larry Callanan; Democrats whom they backed usually won most elections. As it was the midst of the

Second Red Scare McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner. The term origin ...

, Bakewell also labeled Schendel a "stooge" of the political action committee of the

Congress of Industrial Organizations The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in 1935 as a committee within the American Federation of ...

, a committee he considered "

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

-inspired." Bakewell won the election by 6,187 votes, and his victory was hailed as a defeat of an otherwise powerful political machine. However, Bakewell lost the regular 1952 election to Sullivan's widow,

Leonor K. Sullivan Leonor Kretzer Sullivan (August 21, 1902 – September 1, 1988) was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Missouri. She was a Democrat and the first woman in Congress from Missouri. Biography Born Leonor Kretzer in St. Loui ...

. To date, he is the last Republican to represent a significant portion of St. Louis in the House.

After Congress

From 1958 to 1982, Bakewell was the

postmaster A postmaster is the head of an individual post office, responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office. When a postmaster is responsible for an entire mail distribution organization (usually sponsored by a national government), ...

for St. Louis. He died in

University City, Missouri University City (colloquially, U. City) is an inner-ring suburb of the city of St. Louis in St. Louis County, in the U.S. state of Missouri. The population was measured at 35,065 by the 2020 census. The city is one of the older suburbs in the ...

on March 18, 1987, aged 74, and was interred at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bakewell, Claude Ignatius 1912 births 1987 deaths Politicians from St. Louis Georgetown University alumni Members of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen Missouri lawyers Saint Louis University School of Law alumni United States Navy personnel of World War II Missouri postmasters Morgan family Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Missouri 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American legislators Catholics from Missouri American anti-communists