Governor of Ohio, U.S. Senator, Judge, Mayor of Cleveland, Lawyer, World War I Army Officer. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he helped to support his family when he was 12 years old after the death of his father. He worked as a lamplighter and sold newspapers on street corners. A few years later, he played semi professional baseball with teams in Minnesota and Massachusetts. He later attended the Central Institute Prep School from 1915 to 1916. He was offered a contract to play professional baseball and declined to study law at the John Marshall School of Law. When the United States entered World War I, Lausche left school to join the Army. He volunteered for service, enlisted as a Private, and eventually attained an officer's rank as a 2nd Lieutenant. After the war, he returned to law school and graduated in 1920. He was admitted to the bar in Ohio that same year and commenced to practice as an attorney in Cleveland. Lausche was defeated in elections in 1922 and 1924 as a Democratic candidate for office in the Ohio House of Representatives. He was appointed by Ohio Governor George White as a Municipal Court Judge in 1932 and served until 1937. Lausche then became a Judge in the Common Pleas Court from 1937 to 1941. Elected as the Mayor of Cleveland in 1941, he was consumed in dealing with issues involving America's role in World War II. He became popular with the public in Cleveland and was reelected in 1943. He was elected as Ohio's 55th and 57th Governor from 1945 to 1947, and from 1949 to 1957. As Governor, he was bitterly opposed to commercial gambling and racketeering. He supported funding for the modernization of hospitals and prisons and for the completion of the Ohio Turnpike. He resigned on January 3, 1957, eleven days before his term ended, to accept election to the United States Senate. As Senator, he was a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Banking and Currency. He was reelected in 1962 and was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1968 after losing support of the labor unions. Lausche was also a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in 1956. He remained in Washington D.C. for several years until he his health began to rapidly fail in 1990. He returned to Cleveland and died there when he was 94 years old.