Sumner, Jessie, 1898-1994

Jessie Sumner (July 17, 1898 – August 10, 1994) was an American lawyer, banker, and politician. A member of the Republican Party, she served as U.S. Representative from Illinois from 1939 to 1947.

Born in Milford, Illinois, Sumner attended the public schools there before graduating from Girton School, Winnetka, Illinois, in 1916 and Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1920. She studied law at the University of Chicago Law School, Columbia University, New York City, and Oxford University, England. She also studied briefly at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the New York University School of Commerce in New York City. Sumner was admitted to the bar in 1923 and practiced in Chicago, Illinois. She was employed at the Chase National Bank in New York City in 1928. She returned to Milford, Illinois, in 1932 and resumed the practice of law. She served as county judge of Iroquois County, Illinois, in 1937. She served as director of Sumner National Bank in Sheldon, Illinois.

Sumner was elected as a Republican to the Seventy-sixth and to the three succeeding Congresses. During her time in Congress, she advocated for American isolationism, opposing American involvement in World War II and opposing plans for U.S. participation in the postwar United Nations. Though popular with her constituents, Sumner increasingly found herself moving against the current in Washington.

Sumner had publicly announced in early 1944 that she would not seek re-election to the 79th Congress however she eventually recanted her decision, noting her determination to oppose administration policies she believed would precipitate war with Russia. Though she won re-election in November 1944, national results, including FDR’s re-election to an unprecedented fourth term, convinced Sumner that the President’s internationalist policies had triumphed. In 1946 she chose to retire to private life in Milford as a director and, after 1966, as president of Sumner National Bank. Jessie Sumner worked there until her death on August 10, 1994, in Watseka, near Milford.