Homer Bone

Homer Truett Bone (January 25, 1883 – March 11, 1970) was an American attorney and politician in Washington state, where he settled in Tacoma as a youth with his family from Indiana. He ran as a candidate for a variety of parties and was elected to the State House. In 1932, he was elected as a Democrat as United States Senator from Washington, and re-elected to a second term.

In 1944, Bone was appointed as a United States circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He served until his death, the last years in senior status.

Early life

Born on January 25, 1883, in Franklin, Indiana, Bone attended the public schools. He first worked for the United States postal service and in the accounting and credit department of a furniture company.

Bone moved with his parents and family to Tacoma, Washington in 1899 after the state was admitted to the Union. He graduated from the Tacoma Law School (now defunct) in 1911.

Congressional service Bone ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in 1920 as the Farmer–Labor Party candidate.

With the deepening of the Great Depression and changing political attitudes among voters, Bone joined the Democratic Party. He ran for the United States Senate in 1932 and defeated multi-term incumbent, Republican Wesley L. Jones. Bone was reelected in 1938, serving in total from March 4, 1933, until his resignation on November 13, 1944, when he was confirmed for a federal judgeship. Bone wrote the legislation that created the National Cancer Institute, one of the elements of the National Institutes of Health.

Federal judicial service

Bone was nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on April 1, 1944, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which had been vacated by Judge Bert E. Haney. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on April 1, 1944, and received his commission the same day. He assumed senior status on January 1, 1956.

Bone served until his death in Tacoma on March 11, 1970. He had returned to the city in 1968, after living in San Francisco, California since his appointment to the federal bench. He was cremated and his ashes interred in Oakwood Cemetery.

Other service

While in senior status, Bone engaged in private practice in San Francisco from 1956 to 1968.