Leslie C. Arends

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.