Frank Lausche

Lausche was born on November 14, 1895, in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Frances (née Milavec) and Louis Lausche. His family was of Slovenian origin.{{Cite web|url=http://ech.case.edu/cgi/article.pl?id=LFJ|title = Lausche, Frank John|date = 11 May 2018|website=ech.case.edu|access-date=April 20, 2024}} Lausche attended St. Vitus Grade School grades one to four, St. Francis Grade School in grade five and Madison Grammar School grades six to eight. He then went to Central Institute Preparatory School. He dropped out of school in 1911, when his older brother died, to help support his family.Odenkirk 2005 : p. 53 He played baseball locally when not working, and was recruited as a third baseman to the amateur White Motor team, which won a national championship. He was noticed by scouts and reported to the Duluth White Sox in Duluth, Minnesota, of the Class D Northern League in the spring of 1916.Odenkirk 2005 : p. 55 He started the season batting .422, but developed trouble hitting curve balls, and was released after 31 games. He signed with a semi-pro team in Virginia, Minnesota. He performed poorly for two weeks before returning to Cleveland, and amateur ball.Odenkirk 2005 : p. 56

During the spring of 1917, Lausche reported to the Class B Lawrence Barristers, Lawrence, Massachusetts, of the Eastern League. He started well, but was released after 27 games. He enlisted in the United States Army that summer, and reported to Camp Gordon, near Atlanta, Georgia. He was noticed playing baseball, and was asked to join the camp baseball team. He was promoted to second lieutenant after eight months, and assigned to officers' training school. His high batting average "spared him a trip across the ocean to the front lines."Odenkirk 2005 : p. 56 The team manager at the camp was Charles Frank, who in peacetime owned and managed the Atlanta Crackers of the Class AA Southern Association. After World War I ended in November, 1918, but before Lausche was discharged in January, 1919, Frank offered Lausche a six-month contract, at $225 per month if he would report at spring training.Odenkirk 2005 : p. 57 Lausche had also completed high school while in the Army.Odenkirk 2005 : p. 53

Lausche entered the Cleveland-Marshall School of Law early on 1919, and decided to continue in law school that spring, rather than report to spring training.Odenkirk 2005 : p. 57 He graduated from the law school in 1921. He was ranked second in his class at John Marshall School of Law and quickly became known as one of Cleveland's better trial lawyers.{{cite news|last1=Folkart|first1=Burt|title=Frank Lausche; Ohio Governor, Senator|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-04-23-mn-72-story.html|access-date=October 10, 2014|work=Los Angeles Times|date=April 23, 1990}} Lausche served as Municipal Court judge from 1932 to 1937 and Common Pleas Court judge from 1937 to 1941, before winning election as Mayor of Cleveland in 1941.

File:Frank Lausche (OH).png

He served until 1944, when he first won election as governor of Ohio, the state's first Roman Catholic in that position. Lausche served as governor from 1945 to 1947, when he narrowly lost to Thomas J. Herbert. Lausche defeated Herbert in a 1948 rematch, however, and served four consecutive two-year terms from 1949 to 1957. He was reelected as governor in 1950, defeating state Treasurer Don H. Ebright; in 1952, defeating Cincinnati Mayor Charles Phelps Taft II; and in 1954, defeating state Auditor Jim Rhodes, who later became governor himself. Lausche resigned in early 1957, having won election to the United States Senate in November 1956, unseating incumbent Republican George Bender.{{cite web|url=https://case.edu/ech/articles/l/lausche-frank-john| title=LAUSCHE, FRANK JOHN|publisher= Case Western University Reserve|accessdate=25 March 2025}}{{cite web|url=https://www.nga.org/governor/frank-john-lausche/| title=Governor Frank Lausche|publisher= National Governors Association|accessdate=25 March 2025}}

In his first term, with the Senate almost evenly split, Lausche gave Senate Democratic leader Lyndon B. Johnson a scare by hinting that he might vote for Republican William F. Knowland for Senate Majority Leader, although he ultimately did not. Throughout his career, Lausche displayed a bipartisan and independent approach to politics, being known by some as a "Democrat with a small 'd'", but his approach to ethnic Democratic politics paved the way for followers such as Ralph S. Locher, who became Mayor of Cleveland and later an associate justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, and Bronis Klementowicz, a leader of Cleveland City Council and law director under Locher.{{cite web|url=https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/l000122| title=LAUSCHE, Frank John|publisher= Biographical Directory of United States Congress|accessdate=25 March 2025}}

Lausche's independence also earned him, among some, the derisive moniker, "Frank the Fence." He was easily re-elected to the Senate in 1962, but was defeated in his bid for renomination in 1968, due to his loss of labor union support. He lost the Democratic primary against former Congressman John J. Gilligan by a 55% to 45% margin, and in the general election, Lausche refused to support Gilligan, who went on to lose the general election to then-state Attorney General William B. Saxbe.

Lausche was a very popular, plain-spoken, big-city politician of the old school. He was credited with building a coalition of ethnic voters in Cleveland known as the "cosmopolitan Democrats." There is some evidence that Republican presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 considered asking Lausche to become his running mate and is said to have been considered in the Republican 1956 campaign by Leonard W. Hall in a presidential meeting.

In retirement, Lausche and his wife, Jane, lived in Bethesda, Maryland.Odenkirk 2005 : p. 371 Jane Lausche died November 24, 1981, and, having converted to the Roman Catholic faith, was buried at Calvary Cemetery in southeast Cleveland.Odenkirk 2005 : p. 389 Lausche continued to live in Bethesda until contracting pneumonia in January 1990. He was flown back to Cleveland, and was admitted to the Slovenian Home for the Aged on February 20, where he died of congestive heart failure on April 21, 1990, at the age of 94.Odenkirk 2005 : p. 392

Lausche's funeral was at St. Vitus Church, with Bishop Anthony Edward Pevec delivering the homily. He was buried at Calvary Cemetery. His tombstone was incorrectly inscribed with a birth date of 1898.Odenkirk 2005 : p. 393

Lausche was named a Knight of St John of Malta by Pope John Paul II, "the highest civilian honor that can be bestowed by the Catholic Church".Odenkirk 2005 : p. 386

The State of Ohio's office building in Cleveland, Ohio is named after Lausche, as is the Lausche Building at the Ohio Expo Center (site of the Ohio State Fair). In 2005, James E. Odenkirk authored the book Frank J. Lausche: Ohio's Great Political Maverick, an in-depth look at Lausche's political career. In the early 1990s, Ohio's Lincoln was published.{{cn|date=April 2024}}

Lausche Avenue (formerly Glass Avenue), a street that spans between East 60th and East 64th Streets adjacent St. Vitus church in the St. Clair-Superior neighborhood on Cleveland's East Side, is named for Lausche, whose family were members of the parish as well as residents of the neighborhood.{{Cite web|url=https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/737|title = St. Vitus Church - A Rocky Start for the Bedrock of the Cleveland Slovenian Community|access-date=April 20, 2024}}

A bust of Lausche is displayed at St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Cleveland's Collinwood neighborhood, and an exhibit of Lausche artifacts is displayed at Cleveland's Slovenian Museum and Archives.[https://cleveland101.com/cleveland-101-people/frank-lausche-mayor-governor-senator/ Frank Lausche], Cleveland101.com. Accessed April 20, 2024.

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• Ohio gubernatorial elections

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• {{cite book | first =James E. | last=Odenkirk | ref=odenkirk| title=Frank J. Lausche Ohio's Great Political Maverick | year=2005 |publisher = Orange Frazer Press |location=Wilmington, Ohio |isbn=1882203496 }}

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