The Long brothers' grandfather.
b. 1927 · d. 1989
Grandfather of John, Perry and Patrick Long (generation 2)
Every generation, from the recorded chain. Each link shows its confidence; “record pending” marks a link that rests on the FamilySearch tree, with no record attached yet.
Sources for the marriages
John Joseph Long was born on 10 December 1927, the son of William Francis Long and Susanna G. Daley, and grew up in Fall River, Massachusetts, where the 1940 census found him at age 12. [1] [3] He attended B.M.C. Durfee High School, where he was an All-Bristol County athlete in 1946 and co-captain of the football team, and went on to Boston University's College of Business Administration and Rhode Island College of Education. [5] He served in the Korean War as a sergeant in the U.S. Army Military Police. [5]
He sat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives as a Democrat for twelve consecutive terms, from 1957 to 1980. [6] [10] Redistricting moved his seat: the 11th Bristol District until 1968, the 7th Bristol (Fall River's 6th Ward and Westport) from 1969, and the 8th Bristol from 1975, by which time he lived in Westport. [6] [13] [14] [9] Away from the State House he was an insurance agent, later an insurance broker. [6] [7]
His first committees were Harbors and Public Lands and Municipal Finance. [11] In 1963–64 he sat on Rules and was vice-chairman of Highways and Motor Vehicles. [12] On the Rules Committee he signed the 1962 report recommending that the House censure Representative Harrison Chadwick, who had appeared in a national television documentary, "Biography of a Bookie Joint." [21] In 1960 he served on the House special committee on the state prison system. [22] From 1965 he served on Ways and Means, [8] [15] in 1973 on State Administration, [16] and from 1975 he led the House side of the joint committee on Federal Financial Assistance, signing its reports "For the committee, John J. Long." [17] [18] The Speaker also appointed him to the Commission on Interstate Co-operation. [20] In 1973 he was House chairman of the special commission on how counties, cities and towns awarded construction contracts. [23] In 1969, with Representative Patrick H. Harrington Jr., he filed three bills for Fall River's Battleship Cove: a memorial park on the waterfront, directional signs, and a "Battleship Massachusetts Memorial Day." [24] He served Fall River in the House when Bristol Community College was founded, in 1965.
He lost the Democratic primary of 1980 to Charles E. Silva, 2,173 votes to 1,859, although he carried Westport, 619 to 615, and left the House at the end of that term. [19] [25] [10] He died at Fall River on 5 December 1989 and is buried at Westport. [1] [2] [4] The House adjourned in his memory that December, and Westport's town report for 1989 remembered him as its representative from 1975 to 1980. [26] [27]