Early Life
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, to Frank Patrick and Johanna (Egan) Yorty, he began his political education as the son of a Democratic father in a Republican state, with a mother who also showed a strong interest in politics. The family moved to Southern California when Yorty completed high school. He retained his Midwestern inflection and was known for pronouncing his city's name as “Los Ang-gah-leez.”
Yorty enrolled at Southwestern University and later the University of California at Los Angeles, working for a time at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. He was admitted to the bar in 1939.
Elected as a Democrat to the California State Assembly in 1936, Yorty established himself as a politician with integrity, but watched his popularity plummet when he reported a bribery attempt on a pending bill. Yorty advocated state ownership of public utilities and strong labor unions, showing a liberal approach to politics. His support of the Republicans in Spain's civil war against General Francisco Franco, and his fight against using the California Highway Patrol to end labor strikes helped earn him support of the local Communist Party United States of America organization.
That support haunted Yorty in 1938, when he was branded a communist by Folsom Prison inmate Arthur Kent during testimony before the California Un-American Activities Committee. Kent, who claimed to have been a local membership chairman of the Communist Party, proved to be untrustworthy and Yorty was vindicated. That episode, plus the refusal of the local Communist Party to endorse him for mayor of Los Angeles that year, began a shift of Yorty’s political beliefs.
| Samuel William Yorty | |
|---|---|
| Born | Lincoln, Nebraska |
| Died | June 5, 1998(1998-06-05) (aged 88) Los Angeles, California |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Service/branch | United States Army Air Forces |
| Battles/wars | World War II (Pacific Theater of Operations) |
| Other work | Mayor of Los Angeles |
Losing a 1940 bid for U.S. Senator, when he ran unsuccessfully as a liberal internationalist against isolationist Republican and longtime incumbent Hiram Johnson, Yorty left politics during World War II to serve in the United States Army Air Forces in the Pacific Theater. He resumed his Assembly seat after his discharge. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1950 and was reelected in 1952, but again lost his race for the U.S. Senate in 1954. In that special election for the two years remaining of the term Richard M. Nixon, Yorty received 1,788,071 votes (45.5 percent) to Senator Thomas H. Kuchel's 2,090,831 (53.2 percent). Kuchel, a liberal Republican, had been appointed to the seat in 1953 by then Governor Earl Warren when Nixon became vice president.
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