Thomas Francis Bayard Jr. (1868-1942)

US Senator. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the US Senate representing Delaware from November 1922 until March 1929. His father was Thomas Francis Bayard, Sr., who also represented the state of Delaware in the US Senate. After graduating from Yale University at New Haven, Connecticut in 1890, he attended Yale Law School and in 1893 was admitted to the Delaware Bar. He then worked in New York City, New York for four years as an assistant corporation counsel, before returning to Delaware in 1901 to practice law. From 1906 until 1916 he served as a Chairman of the Delaware Democratic Party's state committee and from 1917 until 1919 as solicitor for the city of Wilmington, Delaware. On November 7, 1922 he was elected to the US Senate in a special election, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of US Senator Josiah O. Wolcott, and on the same day he was also elected for the full term to follow, in both instances defeating incumbent Republican US Senator T. Coleman du Pont, who had been appointed. In 1928 he lost his bid for a second full term in the US Senate to Republican John G. Townsend, Jr., the former Delaware governor, and lost another bid for a second full term in 1930 to incumbent Republican US Senator Daniel O. Hastings. He then returned to Wilmington and resumed his law practice. He died at the age of 74. He was the grandson of Delaware US Senator James Asheton Bayard, Jr. and the father of Alexis I. du Pont Bayard, who served as Lieutenant Governor of Delaware from 1949 to 1953.

Bio by: William Bjornstad