"California Senator" Clair Engle Cut Signature For Sale

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"California Senator" Clair Engle Cut Signature:
$49.99

Up for sale "California Senator" Clair Engle Clipped Signature. 

ES-7347

Clair Engle (September

21, 1911 – July 30, 1964) was an American politician of the Democratic Party and

a United States Senator from California. He is best remembered for participating in the

vote breaking the filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in

the US Senate while partially paralyzed and unable to speak, shortly before his

death from a brain tumor. Engle was born in Bakersfield, to Fred Engle, a rancher who had been a teacher

and a lawyer, and his wife, Carita. His parents named him after his aunt, who

had assisted in his birth, and his name would become the source of many folksy

stories over the years. Like his two brothers, he was active in outdoor

activities and attended public schools in Shasta and Tehama Counties. His

fellow students at Red Bluff High School elected

him their student body president. In 1928, he enrolled at Chico State Teachers

College, and he graduated in 1930. He then attended University of California Hastings College of the Law, and

graduated in 1933. Although Engle had a reputation for straight-laced

religiosity at both institutions, he eloped to marry his first wife, Hazel. They

divorced in 1948 and Engle married his second wife, Lucretia Caldwell, a

congressional secretary from San Jose. Admitted to the California bar in 1933, Engle set up a practice in Corning and soon ran

for District Attorney of Tehama County. Just 23

years old at the time of his victory, he would hold that office from 1934 to

1942. In 1942, he won election to the California Senate, representing Tehama, Glenn and Colusa Counties but

ended up serving in that body for little more than a year. His main

accomplishment was passing a law to allow the conversion of unused fairgrounds

in order to house migrant farmworkers and ease a severe labor shortage. Engle

won election as a Democrat to

the U.S. Senate in 1958, the year of a Democratic landslide.

He defeated the incumbent Governor Goodwin J. Knight, thus becoming the first Democrat elected to

that Senate seat in the 20th century. He succeeded William F. Knowland, who

had given up the seat in an unsuccessful run for governor, losing to Pat Brown. He began his term on January 3, 1959. He worked

with Senator Thomas Kuchel to pass

the San Luis water project, the West Coast powertie and the Point Reyes National

Seashore. He also promoted federal public transit assistance and

civil rights legislation to assist his urban constituents.

However,

on August 24, 1963, Senator Engle underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor, which left him partially paralyzed, forcing him

to miss several Senate sessions, and he ultimately withdrew from his

re-election campaign. On April 13, 1964, the gravity of Engle's health problems

was evident as he attempted to introduce a resolution calling for a delay in

constructing the Bodega Bay Nuclear Power

Plant at Bodega Head, located in Sonoma County. He was given permission

to speak, but was unable; a colleague presented the resolution instead. Engle

officially ended his re-election campaign on April 28, 1964, just four days

after undergoing his second brain operation in eight months. He chose not to

endorse either of his Democratic challengers, California State Controller Alan Cranston and former presidential press

secretary Pierre Salinger. That

decision came because state Democratic leaders refused to endorse him unless he

provided details concerning his health. On June 10, 1964, during the roll call

for the historic, successful effort to break the filibuster on what would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964,

when the clerk reached "Mr. Engle", there was no reply. The tumor had

robbed Engle of his ability to speak. Slowly lifting an arm, he pointed to his

eye, thereby signaling his affirmative vote ("aye").The cloture vote was 71–29, four votes more than the two

thirds required to end the filibuster. Nine days later, the Senate approved the

Act itself. 

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