Phillip Burton

Phillip Burton ( born June 1, 1926 in Cincinnati, Ohio, † April 10, 1983 in San Francisco, California ) was an American politician of the Democratic Party. His brother John Lowell Burton was also active as a politician.

Burton studied at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and received at this university in 1947 his Bachelor of Arts. At the Golden Gate Law School in San Francisco, which he attended after he received his Bachelor of Laws in 1952. Burton was now working as a lawyer. In 1956 he was admitted to hearings before the United States Supreme Court.

In the same year, his political career began when he was elected as the youngest member of the California State Assembly. Burton was a member of the state legislature from 1956 to 1964 and then moved in the House of Representatives of the United States, in which he had been elected during a special election to fill a vacant seat. In subsequent elections Burton was re-elected ten times, and thus represented the state of California on 18 February 1964 until his death on 10 April 1983 at the House of Representatives of the United States. Burton, who died of heart failure, was cremated and buried in the National Cemetery at the Presidio of San Francisco. His vacant seat in the House of Representatives was re- occupied by his widow, Sala Burton.

In his time as an MP, he was on the California State Democratic conventions from 1968 to 1982 and to the Democratic National Conventions of 1968 and 1970 Delegate.