Frank William Boykin

Frank William Boykin Sr. (February 21, 1885 – March 12, 1969) served as a Democratic congressman in Alabama's 1st congressional district from 1935-1963. The son of sharecroppers, Boykin became the wealthiest man in Mobile, although his entrepreneurial practices led to several criminal investigations and prosecutions—both before his legislative service and as it ended.

Early and family life

Born in Bladon Springs, Alabama, the fourth of ten children born to sharecropper James Clark Boykin and his wife, the former Glovinia Ermenia Ainsworth, Boykin's little formal education ended in the fourth grade. In 1893, the family moved to Fairford in Washington County, where Frank initially helped at the family store. In 1927 his partner Everett died, with Boykin as his executor. In 1939, Boykin bought out the Everett family's remaining interest in their joint investments for $9,900, which his brother Matt Boykin, the local probate judge, approved. He was chairman of the House Patents Committee from 1943 to 1947. He ran in a special election for the United States Senate in 1946, but finished a distant third.

Boykin was considered a congressman whose mission was to take care of his district's citizens. Although his seniority allowed him to steer millions of federal dollars to his district, he was known for missing roll call votes more often than any other member of the state's congressional delegation.

Boykin lost his seat in 1962, when Alabama's congressional delegation was cut from nine to eight members after the 1960 United States Census. The state legislature couldn't agree on which district to eliminate, so all nine incumbents ran against each other in an unusual statewide election. The last-place finisher would be dropped, while the eight survivors would become at-large congressmen. Boykin finished last, trailing the eighth-place finisher, Kenneth A. Roberts of the 4th District, by 100,000 votes.

Corruption charge During Prohibition, Boykin became one of the prominent defendants in Mobile's "whisky trials", which began as U.S. Attorney for Southern Alabama Aubrey Broyles announced Boykin had attempted to bribe him. Although initial charges were dismissed following an evidentiary ruling which forbade prosecutors from introducing Boykin's correspondence with the Harding administration, Boykin was later convicted, then the conviction reversed on appeal. on charges of conspiracy and conflict-of-interest relating to land deals in Maryland and Virginia, based on his using his congressional influence to gain dismissal of mail fraud charges against banker J. Kenneth Edlin. He served six months' probation and fined. President Johnson pardoned Boykin in 1965, at the request of departing Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

Personal life In 1913, Boykin married Ocllo Gunn of Thomasville, Alabama. In their nearly 56 year marriage, they had and raised five children.

Death and legacy

In 1969, Boykin died of heart failure in Washington, D.C. but his remains returned to Mobile, Alabama, where he was interred in Pine Crest Cemetery.

Several locations in his former district are named after him, including a public housing complex, an elementary school in McIntosh and a highway. For sixty years, the family's Tensaw Land and Timber Company allowed hunters onto its land near Citronelle, but in 2015 announced termination of the relationship that had created the Frank W. and Rob M. Boykin Wildlife Management Area. A scholarship at Huntingdon College in Montgomery also honors the former Congressman.