Howard Walter Cannon (26 January 1912-5 March 2002) was a US Senator from Nevada from 3 January 1959 to 3 January 1983, succeeding George W. Malone and preceding Chic Hecht.
Biography[]
Howard Walter Cannon was born in St. George, Utah on 26 January 1912 to a large Mormon family; his father was one of 31 children. Cannon became a lawyer in Arizona in 1937, Utah in 1938, and Nevada in 1946, and he served as County Attorney of Washington County, Utah in 1940. He went on to serve as a troop carrier pilot during World War II, and he was shot down over the Netherlands in 1944 and spent 42 days trying to return to Allied lines with help from the Dutch Resistance. In 1946, he established law offices in Las Vegas, and he served as City Attorney from 1949 to 1958, when he was elected to the US Senate as a Democrat. He was a moderate Democrat, voting for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He died in 2002.