James McDevitt Magee was an aviator

Aviator

An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...

 and a Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

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Biography

James M. Magee was born in Evergreen, Pennsylvania (near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

). He graduated from Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 in 1899, where he was a member of Skull and Bones

Skull and Bones

Skull and Bones is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It is a traditional peer society to Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head, as the three senior class 'landed societies' at Yale....

, and from the law department of the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

 at Philadelphia in 1902. He was admitted to the bar in 1903 and commenced practice in Pittsburgh. He was commissioned a first lieutenant in the United States Army Air Service

United States Army Air Service

The Air Service, United States Army was a forerunner of the United States Air Force during and after World War I. It was established as an independent but temporary wartime branch of the War Department by two executive orders of President Woodrow Wilson: on May 24, 1918, replacing the Aviation...

 during the First World War. He was promoted to captain and served until January 1919. He was later commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the Reserve. During his entire period of service was attached to the executive office of the Department of Military Aeronautics

Division of Military Aeronautics, Secretary of War

The Division of Military Aeronautics was the name of the Army's aviation organization for a four-day period during World War I. It was created by a reorganization by the War Department of the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps on April 24, 1918, still as part of the Signal Corps...

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Magee elected as a Republican to the Sixty-eighth

68th United States Congress

The Sixty-eighth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1923 to March 4, 1925, during the last months of...

 and Sixty-ninth

69th United States Congress

The Sixty-ninth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1925 to March 4, 1927, during the third and fourth...

 Congresses. He was unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1926

United States House election, 1926

The U.S. House election, 1926 was an election for the United States House of Representatives in 1926 which occurred in the middle of President Calvin Coolidge's second term....

. He served as chairman of the Pennsylvania Securities Commission in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Harrisburg is the capital of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 49,528, making it the ninth largest city in Pennsylvania...

, from 1931 to 1935. He continued the practice of law in Pittsburgh until his death there. Magee was interred in Calvary Cemetery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Calvary Cemetery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Calvary Catholic Cemetery is located at 718 Hazelwood Avenue in the Greenfield and Hazelwood neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.It was founded in 1886 with the purchase of a 200-acre tract. The first official interment occurred in 1888, though there are graves with earlier dates. As of...

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Magee was brother of John Magee (missionary), and uncle to John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

John Gillespie Magee, Jr. was an American aviator and poet who died as a result of a mid-air collision over Lincolnshire during World War II. He was serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force, which he joined before the United States officially entered the war. He is most famous for his poem "High...

, author of the poem "High Flight."