Ned R. Healy

Not to be confused with Don R. Healy, Los Angeles labor leader of the 1940s and 1950s.

Ned R. Healy
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 13th district
In office January 3, 1945 – January 3, 1947
Preceded by	C. Norris Poulson
Succeeded by	C. Norris Poulson
Member of the Los Angeles City Council from the 13th district
In office July 1, 1943 – January 1, 1945
Preceded by	Roy Hampton
Succeeded by	Meade McClanahan
Personal details
Born	August 9, 1905 Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Died	September 10, 1977 (aged 72) Long Beach, California
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Helen Nelson
Children	Jeannine, Peter, Nelson
Residence	Los Angeles, California
Alma mater	University of Wisconsin–Madison Marquette University
Profession	dealer in auto parts and accessories

Ned Romeyn Healy (August 9, 1905 – September 10, 1977), who went by Ned R. Healy, was a member of the Los Angeles, California, City Council in 1943 and 1944 and a member of Congress from 1945 to 1947.

Biography

Healy was born August 9, 1905, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he attended public schools and Marquette University. He also studied at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, in which city he was a stock and bond salesman from 1929 until he moved to Los Angeles in 1932, where he was in merchandising and office management. He was director of the Hollywood office of the California State Relief Administration in 1939 and 1940. After his Congressional service ended in 1943, he returned to Los Angeles, where he became a dealer in auto parts and accessories until 1969. Healy died September 10, 1977. His body was cremated and the ashes scattered at sea.^[1]

Political life

Healy was a delegate to the Democratic State Convention in 1944, 1946 and 1948.

City Council

Election

See also List of Los Angeles municipal election returns, 1943

Healy

In 1943 Los Angeles City Council District 13 lay south and west of Downtown Los Angeles, bounded roughly on the east by Sheffield Street, the south by Valley Boulevard, the west by Vermont Avenue and the north by an irregular line from Pullman Street to Fountain Avenue.^[2][3]

Healy ran for election in District 13 against the incumbent, Roy Hampton. In the heat of the campaign, Hampton made a charge in 30,000 fliers circulated "on the eve of the municipal primary" that Healy had at one time been a registered member of the Communist Party. Healy went to the city attorney's office and demanded issuance of a complaint against Hampton for criminal libel, and Hampton quickly made an "unequivocal retraction" of his charge.^[4] The record does not show whether Hampton had confused Ned R. Healy with local labor leader Don R. Healy, whom Hampton had accused of being a communist just three years previous.

Another challenger was Kay Cunningham, who missed beating Ned Healy for second place and a runoff position by only 18 votes.^[5][6]

Healy went on to victory over Hampton in the 1943 runoff vote, but he quit the council in 1944 after winning election to the House of Representatives that fall.The City Council decided to leave the seat unfilled until the next municipal vote, in 1945.^[7]

Positions

Healy was a New Dealer^[8] who in 1943 unsuccessfully opposed granting a permit to Seaboard Oil Company for slant oil drilling under Elysian Park from a site near Riverside Drive.^[9][10]

He also fought for a December 1943 resolution honoring Bill of Rights Week that would have put the council on record as opposed to discrimination "against minority groups" and encouraging broadest "racial" unity. Other members of the council objected to those two terms, and, after a two-hour debate, they were eventually deleted and the motion was adopted, 10-5, in opposition to any form of discrimination and in favor of general unity and tolerance.^[11]

Truman re-election rally at Gilmore Stadium, Los Angeles, 1948.Left to right: Ronald Reagan, Lauren Bacall, ?, Harry S. Truman, ?, ?, ?, Ned R. Healy, ?, Ellis E. Patterson, Helen Gahagan Douglas

References

Access to the Los Angeles Times links may require the use of a library card.

1. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
2. "District Lines Get Approval," Los Angeles Times, December 24, 1932, page A-2
3. "Proposed New Alignment for City Voting Precincts," Los Angeles Times, November 30, 1940, page A-3 Includes a map.
4. "Retraction by Hampton Quashes Libel Charge," Los Angeles Times, April 20, 1943, page 16
5. "Hampton's Foe May Be Settled by Absentee Vale," Los Angeles Times, April 9, 1943, page 18
6. "Vote Results Unchanged by Canvass of Ballots," Los Angeles Times, April 14, 1943, page A-16
7. "Council Holds Healy Job Vacant," Los Angeles Times, December 28, 1944, page 10
8. "Council Slate Approved," April 4, 1943, page 6
9. "Final Oil Hearing Set," Los Angeles Times, September 25, 1943, page 1
10. "Elysian Park Oil Drilling Gets City Council Approval," Los Angeles Times, October 30, 1943, page 1
11. "Council Avoids Controversy on Bill of Rights," Los Angeles Times, December 16, 1943, page A-16

External links

Founded Ned R. Healy & Co., Inc., a dealer expediter and warehouse distributor, in 1947.