Edward Halsey Jenison

Edward Halsey Jenison (July 27, 1907 – June 24, 1996) was a U.S. representative for three terms, Illinois state representative for one term, and newspaper publisher of the Daily Beacon-News of Paris, Illinois for 65 years.

Born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, Jenison attended the public schools and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He engaged in newspaper work, from 1925 to 1937, and as a publisher, since 1938, of the Paris, Illinois Daily Beacon-News. He served as lieutenant commander in the United States Navy, attached to the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Air, with service in the Pacific and Atlantic Forces, from April 1943 to September 1946.

Jenison was elected as a Republican to the Eightieth Congress in 1946, replacing a four-term retiring Republican. After redistricting renumbered his district he was reelected in 1948 to the Eighty-first and Eighty-second Congresses. Redistricted again, Jenison was placed in the 21st District with an incumbent Democrat, Peter Mack, who defeated him in 1952. After a failed run in 1954 against Mack, he continued his public service on the Illinois State Board of Vocational Education (1953-60). With a new redistricting after the 1960 Census, Jenison made a final run for Congress in the 23rd District against another Democratic incumbent, George E. Shipley. Jenison’s service in the House was from January 3, 1947, to January 3, 1953.

He resumed the publishing business, He served as a delegate, Illinois Sixth Constitutional Convention from 1969 to 1970. He died on June 24, 1996; his funeral service was in Paris, Illinois.