Zales Ecton

Zales Nelson Ecton ( born April 1, 1898 in Weldon, Decatur County, Iowa, † March 3, 1961 in Bozeman, Montana ) was an American politician ( Republican), who represented the state of Montana in the U.S. Senate.

Life

As Zales Ecton was nine years old, his parents left him with Iowa and moved to Montana, where the family settled in Gallatin County. There he attended the public schools, and later the Montana State College in Bozeman and the Law School of the University of Chicago. From 1921 he worked as a rancher, where he focused on the cultivation and animal husbandry.

Politically, he was first active in 1933, when he enter into the House of Representatives from Montana. Within the state Legislature in 1937, he moved to the Senate, where he remained until 1946. This year he applied for one of the two seats of Montana in the U.S. Senate. Incumbent Burton K. Wheeler had the Democratic Primary against Leif Erickson, a judge of the Supreme Court of the State lost. Ecton sat down opposite Erickson with 54 percent of the vote and joined by his office in Washington on 3 January 1947. When trying to re-election six years later he was defeated only narrowly Democrats Mike Mansfield.

Ecton retired after from politics and took care back to his ranch. He was the last Republican Senator from Montana to the election of Conrad Burns in 1988.