James Aloysius Farley

James Aloysius Farley (1888-1976), American political leader, born in Grassy Point, New York, and educated at the Packard Commercial School in New York City. He began his political career in 1912 as town clerk of Stony Point, New York, and thereafter rose through the ranks of the Democratic Party, to become one of its most powerful figures. He served as chairman of the Rockland County Democratic Committee (1919-1929), member of the New York State Assembly (1923), secretary of the New York State Democratic Committee (1928-1930), and its chairman (1930-1932). He headed the Democratic National Committee (1932-1940) and was manager of the first two presidential campaigns of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Farley was postmaster general (then a cabinet rank) from 1933 to 1940, but he opposed a third term for Roosevelt and resigned both his cabinet and party positions. He nevertheless remained influential in party affairs. Farley wrote Jim Farley's Story: The Roosevelt Years (1948).