Ernest S. Brown

Who was Ernest S. Brown?

Ernest S. Brown served briefly as a United States Senator from Nevada in 1954.

Born in Alturas, California, he moved with his family to Reno, Nevada, in 1906 and attended the public schools. He graduated from the University of Nevada at Reno in 1926, and was admitted to the bar in 1927, commencing practice in Reno. He was a member of the State assembly in 1933, and was district attorney of Washoe County from 1935 to 1941, and resigned in 1941 to enter active service in the United States Army as a second lieutenant. He was commissioned a colonel and discharged in 1945, and then returned to Reno to resume the practice of law.

On October 1, 1954, he was appointed by Governor Charles H. Russell to the U.S. Senate as a Republican to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Pat McCarran, and served until December 1, 1954. He was defeated in a special election to complete the term by Democrat Alan Bible and resumed the practice of law.

Brown died in Reno in 1965, and was interred in the Masonic section of Mountain View Cemetery.