Early Life and Career
Born as John Parnell Feeney, Jr. in Jersey City, New Jersey, he changed his name in 1919 to John Parnell Thomas. Raised Catholic, he later became an Episcopalian.
After graduating from high school, he went on to study at the University of Pennsylvania. When the United States joined World War I in 1917, he served overseas with the United States Army. Following his discharge from the military in 1919, Thomas worked in the investment securities and insurance business in New York City for the next eighteen years.
He entered Allendale, New Jersey, municipal politics in 1925 and was elected to council, then, Mayor of Allendale, New Jersey between from 1926 to 1930. He was elected to a two-year term to the New Jersey General Assembly in 1935. In 1936 was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Republican Party Representative from New Jersey's 7th congressional district, filling the vacancy left by the death of Randolph Perkins. He would be re-elected six times.
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