Otis Wingo

Who was Otis Wingo?

Otis Theodore Wingo was a U.S. Representative from Arkansas's 4th congressional district, the husband of his successor in office, Effiegene Wingo.

Born in Weakley County in northwestern Tennessee, Wingo attended the public schools, Bethel College at McKenzie, Tennessee, the former McFerrin College at Martin in Weakley County, Tennessee, and Valparaiso University in Indiana. He taught school and studied law, having been admitted to the bar in 1900. He established his practice in De Queen in Sevier County in southwestern Arkansas. From 1907 to 1909, Wingo was a member of the Arkansas State Senate.

In 1912, Wingo was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-third and to the eight succeeding Congresses, having served from March 4, 1913, until his death while undergoing surgery in Baltimore, Maryland, on October 21, 1930.

In 1927, Wingo joined his fellow Democrat, U.S. Senator Joseph Taylor Robinson, and Republican State Representative Osro Cobb of Montgomery County in proposing the establishment of a second national park in Arkansas which would have been located in the scenic Ouachita National Forest about halfway between Little Rock and Shreveport, Louisiana. The proposal, which would have been in driving distance of then some 45 million Americans, was pocket vetoed by U.S. President Calvin Coolidge.