Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress - Retro Member details
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ARENDS, Leslie Cornelius (1895-1985)
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ARENDS, LESLIE CORNELIUS, a Representative from Illinois; born in Melvin, Ford County, Ill., September 27, 1895; attended public and high schools and Oberlin (Ohio) College; during the First World War served in the United States Navy in 1918 and 1919; engaged in agricultural pursuits and banking; in 1935 became member of the Ford County (Ill.) Farm Bureau and in 1938 a member of the board of trustees of the Illinois Wesleyan University at Bloomington; elected as a Republican to the Seventy-fourth Congress; reelected to the nineteen succeeding Congresses and served from January 3, 1935, until his resignation December 31, 1974; minority whip (Seventy-eighth and Seventy-ninth Congresses, Eighty-first and Eighty-second Congresses, and Eighty-fourth through Ninety-third Congresses), majority whip (Eightieth Congress and Eighty-third Congress); was not a candidate for reelection to the Ninety-fourth Congress in 1974; died on July 17, 1985, in Naples, Fla.; interment in Melvin Cemetery, Melvin, Ill.

Illinois Wesleyan University
Bloomington, IL
Papers: ca. 1930-1975, 65.5 linear feet.
The Leslie C. Arends collection consists of three major types of material: audiovisual items, papers, and photographs. The papers span Leslie Arend's career as a U.S. Representative from the 17th congressional district in Illinois. The records document: audiovisual, departments, general, legislation, photographs, positions, post office, publications, speeches, and White House press releases. A finding aid is available in the repository and at The Dirksen Center, Pekin, Illinois.

Library of Congress
Manuscript Division
Washington, DC
Oral History: Transcript in the Oral History Collection of the Association of Former Members of Congress.
Restricted. Sound recording in the Library's Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division.

  • Ralph Nader Congress Project. Citizens Look at Congress: Leslie C. Arends, Republican Representative from Illinois. Washington, D. C.: Grossman Publishers, 1972.