Charles A. Boyle


Charles Augustus Boyle was a United States Congressman from Chicago's north side, representing Illinois's 12th congressional district from 1955 until his death in an automobile accident in the early morning hours of November 4, 1959.

Life and career

Boyle was born in Spring Lake, Michigan on August 13, 1907, the son of Rose and Michael Melvin Boyle. His paternal grandparents were Irish. Boyle was a Democrat, and the father of eight children. First elected in 1954, Boyle was in his third term and was on his way home after campaigning for his fellow Democrats in the November 3 elections when his car crashed into an elevated train pillar on North Western Avenue. Police speculated that Boyle had either fallen asleep or had been cut off by another car. The 12th District went unrepresented for more than a year until after the 1960 general elections, when Democrat Edward Rowan Finnegan defeated Theodore P. Fields.
He and his wife, Helen L., were the grandparents of actress Lara Flynn Boyle.