Joseph W. Byrns Jr.

Joseph Wellington Byrns, Jr. (August 15, 1903 – March 8, 1973) was an attorney and one-term Member of Congress from Tennessee.

Byrns was born in Davidson County, Tennessee. He completed his schooling at the Emerson Institute in Washington, D.C. in 1923 while his father was serving in Congress. In 1928 he graduated from the Vanderbilt University Law School, and was admitted to the bar the same year. From 1930 to 1938 he was a member of the reserve component of the former Army Air Corps, where he became a captain.

In 1938 he won the Democratic nomination for United States House of Representatives and won election to that office in November of that year. He served that one term and was defeated for reelection by J. Percy Priest, a member of the editorial staff of the Nashville Tennessean. Byrns resumed the practice of law.

Byrns served on active duty in the United States Army during World War II, from June 23, 1942 until August 17, 1945, almost all of this time in the European Theater of Operations. Afterwards, he retired to Florida. He died in Daytona Beach and afterwards was interred in Mount Olivet Cemetary in Nashville.

This article incorporates material from the public domain Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.