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John F

John Francis "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald (11 February 1863-2 October 1950) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-MA 9) from 4 March 1895 to 3 March 1901 (succeeding Joseph H. O'Neil and preceding Joseph A. Conry) and from MA-10 from 4 March to 23 October 1919 (interrupting Peter Francis Tague's terms) and Mayor of Boston from 1 January 1906 to 6 January 1908 (succeeding Daniel A. Whelton and preceding George A. Hibbard) and from 7 February 1910 to 2 February 1914 (succeeding Hibbard and preceding James Michael Curley).

Biography[]

John Francis Fitzgerald was born in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts to Irish immigrant parents. He served as a customs house clerk before founding the Jefferson Club in the 1890s to organize Boston's Irish Democratic voters. He served on the Common Council from 1891 to 1892, in the State Senate from 1892 to 1894, in the US House of Representatives from 1895 to 1901, as Mayor from 1906 to 1908 and from 1910 to 1914, and in the US House in 1919. He ran a corrupt political machine, and he promised "a Bigger, Busier, and Better Boston." He persuaded businesses to invest in Boston during his tenure, but he was soon eclipsed by the rising star James Michael Curley. In his old age, Fitzgerald campaigned for Franklin D. Roosevelt and mentored his grandson John F. Kennedy, and he died in 1950.

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