Orville Freeman

Orville Lothrop Freeman ( May 9, 1918 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, † February 20, 2003 ) was an American politician. He was governor of the state of Minnesota and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Life

Freeman studied at the University of Minnesota, where he met his later political ally Hubert H. Humphrey. With this he formed a lifelong friendship. After graduation in 1940 he joined the United States Marine Corps. During World War II he served as a combat officer and earned the rank of Major. After his return from the war he studied at the University of Minnesota Law School and received in 1946 the degree of Bachelor of Laws.

Policy

In 1944 he was one of the founding members of the Democratic - Farmer-Labor Party (DFL ), which originated from the Democratic Party of the State of Minnesota and the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party. Freeman is committed strongly for the merger of the parties.

First DFL member, he was elected governor of Minnesota in 1954, where he succeeded against the Republican incumbent C. Elmer Anderson. This had two years previously defeated him. After he was confirmed twice in office, he was defeated in the 1960 election with a difference of almost 23,000 votes Republican Elmer L. Andersen. Thus he had to resign from the governorship on January 2, 1961.

However, few days later, he was already in his new role as a member of the Federal Government. The recently elected President John F. Kennedy appointed Minister of Agriculture Orville Freeman. Even after the Kennedy assassination on November 22, 1963, he remained under his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, a member of the Cabinet. Special merits he earned in sequence by the implementation of a food stamp program for citizens with no or little income.

After the end of Johnson 's second term in 1969, Freeman also different from from the government. In 2003, he died of complications from Alzheimer 's disease. He was buried in Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis.