Dirksen, Everett McKinley (1896–1969)

US representative and senator. As a Republican for Illinois, he satisfied his constituents by supporting the New Deal domestic programs while championing isolationist foreign policy. In the Senate he was an Eisenhower loyalist and moderate, chosen as Republican whip and later Republican leader.

He was born in Pekin, Illinois. After serving in the army, he worked in family businesses before entering local politics in 1926. A political pragmatist, he drafted the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, running for the Senate in 1950 with the endorsement of Chicago Tribune editor Colonel Robert McCormack. Ironically, the high point of his career came during the Kennedy and Johnson presidencies when he delivered key Republican support for the Test Ban Treaty of 1963 and the Civil Rights acts of 1964, 1965, and 1968.