Thomas M. Eaton


Thomas Marion Eaton served briefly as a U.S. Representative from California in 1939.

Biography

Born on a farm near Edwardsville, Illinois, Eaton attended the public schools.
He graduated from the State Normal School in Normal in 1917. He served as principal of a grade school in Clinton, Illinois, in 1917 and 1918. During the First World War served in the United States Navy as an ensign.
He moved to Long Beach, California, in 1921 and engaged in the automobile sales business.
Eaton was elected to the Long Beach City Council in 1934. He was reelected in 1936, and was unanimously chosen mayor by the council.
Eaton was elected as a Republican to the Seventy-sixth Congress and served from January 3, 1939, until his death in Long Beach, California, September 16, 1939. Eaton's seat remained vacant until his elected successor, William Ward Johnson, took office in January 1941. He was interred in Sunnyside Mausoleum.