Title: Jerris G. Leonard, Jr. Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1956-1968
Inclusive Dates: 1998-2000

Creator:

• Leonard, Jerris, 1931-

Call Number: Milwaukee Mss 115

Quantity: 11.2 c.f. (28 archives boxes)

Repository:

Housed at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries’ Archives Department / Milwaukee Area Research Center; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

UW-Milwaukee Libraries, Archives / Milwaukee Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Abstract:

Papers, mainly 1958-1968, of a Republican state legislator who represented the northern Milwaukee suburbs in the Wisconsin Assembly (1957-1961) and Senate (1961-1969). The collection consists of correspondence to and from legislative colleagues, constituents, Milwaukee businessmen, lobbyists, and Republican Party leaders and an alphabetical subject file containing information about specific legislation, committee assignments, and investigations conducted by the senator. Among the well covered topics are budgets and taxes, the Governor's Commission on Human Rights and open housing, the Governor's Scholarship and Loan Committee, the Kellett governmental reorganization bill, alleged Communist influence of the Daily Cardinal, and pornography. Also included are copies of press releases, speeches and statements, and constituent newsletters and political correspondence relating to Leonard's unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1968 and other Republican campaigns, the Senate Republican Caucus, and other political matters. Prominent correspondents include Raymond Bice, Ody Fish, Walter G. Hollander, Warren P. Knowles, Clifford Krueger, Gerald D. Lorge, John Mitchell, and F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mil00115

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Jerris Leonard, Wisconsin Republican leader and lawyer, was born in Chicago on January 17, 1931, the son of Jerris G. and Jean Marie Reville Leonard. After his father died when young Leonard was two years old, the family moved to Milwaukee where he attended Rufus King High School and received a B.S. in business administration (1952) and a law degree (1955) from Marquette University. After graduation he began practicing law in Milwaukee. In 1964 Leonard joined the firm of Michael, Best & Friedrich.

In 1956 Leonard was elected to the Wisconsin Assembly. He was reelected without opposition in 1958 and during his second term served as assistant minority leader in the lower house as well as serving on the GOP Policy Committee, the Joint Finance Committee, and the State Building Commission. Leonard was elected to the State Senate from the 4th District in 1960 and reelected in 1964. An acknowledged Republican leader in the legislature despite his relative youth, Leonard made a reputation for his fiscal conservatism, devotion to civil rights, and concern for family issues. In the Senate, Leonard served as assistant majority leader from 1961 through 1966, moving up to majority leader for two years in 1967. In 1963 he was chairman of the Republican Policy Committee and a member of the three-man Committee on Committees. He also served as president of the Wisconsin Agencies Building Corporation from 1963 until 1969. In 1965 the Wisconsin Jaycees named him one of the five outstanding young men in the state. In 1968 Leonard chose not to run for reelection in order to run for election to the U.S. Senate against incumbent Gaylord Nelson. He was defeated, but accepted a position in the Nixon administration as assistant attorney general for civil rights. Leonard remained in that position until 1971 when he became administrator for the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration. In 1973 he returned to private practice in Washington, D.C., as a partner in Leonard & Ralston. He remained active in the Republican Party, serving as a member of the Reagan transition team in 1980 and the Bush transition team in 1988.

The Jerris Leonard Papers chiefly document his legislative career in the State Senate, although some correspondence from his earlier years in the Assembly is included. For the most part, the papers document his legislative actions and views, as well as the opinions of his constituents on numerous legislative issues, with lesser material on the progress of his political career. Virtually no personal papers are included.

Although the Leonard Papers share the depersonalized, bureaucratic character of most legislative collections of their era, they are, nevertheless, exceptional political documentation. This is due to the relative rarity of their contents (other important Republican political files of the period such as papers of Ody Fish having been destroyed), the high level in state political circles in which Leonard operated, and the unusual frankness of his correspondence style. Without doubt, the collection is one of the better research resources for studying the 1960's in Wisconsin.

The papers received from the senator have been weeded in the Archives in order to remove routine and ephemeral material. The discarded material included duplicates, form letters and orchestrated mail from constituents, routine requests and case work, documentation on legislation more accessible elsewhere, and publications.

The Leonard Papers are arranged as Biographical Material, General Files, and Publicity. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL consists of xeroxed biographical clippings gathered from throughout the collection.

The GENERAL FILES, which make up the bulk of the collection, are subdivided into General Correspondence, Subject Files, and Political Files. The general correspondence is arranged by legislative term and alphabetically by correspondent. Unlike the practice of many legislative offices, the Leonard General Correspondence files were used for correspondence of great value concerning pending legislation and politics, although some discussion of case work and other more routine matters in which Leonard was involved is included. Unfortunately no indexes to these files were received in the archives, and the files for individual letters of the alphabet are extremely disorganized. Although by no means a complete index, the following listing of prominent correspondents will serve as an aid to searching:

1959

Claude Jasper, Philip Kuehn, Arthur Padrutt, John Reynolds, Philip Sellinger, Nile Soik, Roland Steinle

1961-1962

Lloyd Barbee, Patrick Cudahy, Edmund Fitzgerald, Ody Fish, Kirby Hendee, Sam Hay, Connor T. Hansen, Philip G. Kuehn, Warren Knowles, Robert Knowles, Gerald Lorge, J. Earl Leverich, Delbert Kenney, J. Curtis McKay, Robert Pierce, F. James Sensenbrenner, Merrill E. Stalbaum, Carl Steiger, Robert Travis.

1963-1964

David Adamany, Allen J. Busby, Raymond Bice, Richard Cudahy, Charles Davis, Harold Falk, Richard S. Falk, George Greeley, John Gower, Walter Hollander, Edward Kersten, Clifford Krueger, Warren Knowles, Walter Kohler, J. Curtis McKay, Richard McDonald, Jack Olson, Daniel Parker, Arthur Padrutt, Talbot Peterson, Frank Panzer, Maurice Pausch, John Reynolds, Dena Smith, Philip Sellinger, Carl Steiger, F. James Sensenbrenner, Henry Schadeberg.

1965-1967

Raymond Bice, Louis J. Ceci, Charles Davis, Ody Fish, Connor T. Hansen, Claude Jasper, Robert Knowles, Ernest Keppler, Melvin Laird, Reuben LaFave, Bronson La Follette, Richard McDonald, Henry Maier, John Mitchell, Richard Nixon, William Wesley Peters, Merrill Stalbaum, John C. Shabaz, F. James Sensenbrenner, William Steiger, Philip Sellinger, Jess Unruh, Robert Warren

1967-1968

Don Anderson, Allen J. Busby, Manny Brown, Gordon Bubolz, Raymond Bice, Louis Ceci, Art Cerilli, Walter John Chilsen, Charles Davis, Glenn Davis, Lee Dreyfus, Robert Dineen, William Draheim, Herbert Grover, Ann Gaylor, Robert Hubert, E. Harold Hallows, Connor T. Hansen, Robert Hansen, Claude Jasper, William Kellett, Ernest Keppler, Robert Knowles, Warren Knowles, William Kraus, Gerald Lorge, Melvin Laird, Henry Maier, John Mitchell, John K. MacIver, Frank Nikolay, Richard Nixon, Jack Olson, Richard Pabst, Vel Phillips, Gordon Roseleip, Nile Soik, Carl Steiger.

The Subject Files are divided by legislative term, although the division is not strict and some files contain material spanning more than one session. For the earlier sessions in which Leonard served, the files are arranged alphabetically by subject; for the 1965-1966 and 1967-1968 sessions, there is also information concerning specific legislation filed in numerically-ordered bill files. Most of the Subject Files contain a mixture of material types, ranging from correspondence and reports to working drafts of bills. Several files, which are restricted until 2019, consist of material assessing political appointees made by the governor. Filing in the Subject Files was frequently inconsistent, and some correspondence pertaining to topics for which there are individual subject folders may also be found in the General Correspondence. Among the most extensively documented topics in this group of records are files pertaining to budgets and taxes, the Governor's Commission on Human Rights and open housing, the Governor's Scholarship and Loan Committee, the Kellett governmental reorganization bill, alleged Communist influence of the Daily Cardinal, and pornography.

The Political Files are arranged basically by year, with the files spanning the period 1960 to 1968. Some fragmentary Leonard campaign material is included, chiefly in the form of committee correspondence. The rest of the material deals with general Republican Party matters. The researcher should note that political correspondence was not segregated from the general correspondence until 1964, and even after that time filing was not precise. As a result, the General Files should be searched by researchers interested in political history. Especially notable are files on the Republican State Senate Campaign Committee and the publicity produced by the Senate Republican Caucus.

PUBLICITY FILES are arranged by type and then filed in chronological order. Included are speeches and statements, press releases, constituent newsletters, scripts from a radio program broadcast in 1963, and evaluations of Leonard by a university political science class.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Jerris Leonard, Madison, Wisconsin, 1965-1969. Accession Number: M65-114, M69-2

Processing Information

Processed by Noreen Fish (FGH intern) and Carolyn J. Mattern, 1988.

Box   1 Folder   1	Series: Biographical Material
	Series: General Files	⇧
	Subseries: General correspondence
Box   1 Folder   2	1958-1960
	1961-1962
Box   1 Folder   3-7	A-G
Box   2 Folder   1-6	H-R
Box   3 Folder   1-5	S-Z
	1963-1964
Box   3 Folder   6-7	A-B
Box   3A Folder   1-6	C-H
Box   4 Folder   1-6	I-P
Box   5 Folder   1-6	Q-W
Box   6 Folder   1	Y-Z
Box   6 Folder   2	Chronological file, 1963-1964
	1965-1966
Box   6 Folder   3-5	A-C
Box   6A Folder   1-6	D-I
Box   7 Folder   1-9	J-M
Box   7A Folder   1-7	O-T
Box   8 Folder   1-2	U-Z
Box   8 Folder   3-4	Chronological files, 1965-1966
	1967-1968
Box   8 Folder   5-7	A-B
Box   9	B (Continued)-F
Box   10	G-K
Box   11	K (Continued)-O
Box   12	P-S
Box   13 Folder   1-5	T-Z
Box   13 Folder   6-7	Chronological file, 1967
	Subseries: Subject files	⇧
	1958-1962
Box   13 Folder   8	Committee on Committees, 1962
Box   13 Folder   9	Decisions of chair (110), 1961
Box   14 Folder   1	Education (112), 1962, n.d.
Box   14 Folder   2	Education re-evaluation (113), NCSLL Committee on, 1960-1961, n.d.
Box   14 Folder   3	Flood control (116), 1960
Box   14 Folder   4	Governmental affairs (117), 1962, n.d.
Box   14 Folder   5	Highways (119), 1960-1964, n.d.
Box   14 Folder   6	Hold-over bills (120), 1961
Box   14 Folder   7-8	Human Rights, Governor's Commission on (121) 1960-1965, n.d.
Box   14 Folder   9	Income Tax Simplification (112), 1958-1961
Box   14 Folder   10	Judiciary (123-124), 1960-1961, n.d.
Box   14 Folder   11	Notes
Box   14 Folder   12	Labor (125) 1959-1961, n.d.
Box   15 Folder   1A	Legislative Reference Bureau drafts, 1961
Box   15 Folder   1B	Legislative services (126), 1959-1961, n.d.
Box   15 Folder   2	Liaison Committee minutes (127), 1961
Box   15 Folder   3	Metropolitan Study Committee (129), 1961, n.d.
Box   15 Folder   4	Milwaukee County Schools (130), 1956-1961, n.d.
Box   15 Folder   5-6	Miscellaneous bill files (132-133), 1956-1961, n.d.
Box   15 Folder   7	National Conference of State Legislative Leaders (134), 1960
Box   15 Folder   8	Nelson, Gaylord (135), 1958-1961
Box   15 Folder   9	Organization of administrative branch of state government (137), 1956-1961
Box   15 Folder   10	Physically handicapped (141), 1960-1961, n.d.
Box   15 Folder   11	Price discrimination (146), 1961, n.d.
Box   15 Folder   12	Proposed legislation (147), 1961, n.d.
Box   15 Folder   13	Radiation (148), 1959-1961, n.d.
Box   15 Folder   14	Reapportionment (149), 1961
Box   15 Folder   15	Roll calls (150), 1959-1960
Box   15 Folder   16	Space utilization study (152), 1961, n.d.
Box   15 Folder   17	Tax material (156), 1961, n.d.
Box   16 Folder   1	Tax material (156), continued
Box   16 Folder   2	Twenty-third Amendment (Liberty Amendment) (157) 1959-1961, n.d.
Box   16 Folder   3	Vicksburg National Military Park, Wisconsin Day, 1961
Box   16 Folder   4	Welfare (158), 1959-1963, n.d.
Box   16 Folder   5	Wisconsin Neurological Foundation (159), 1961
	1963-1964
Box   25 Folder   1-2	Appointments, 1963-1964
Box   16 Folder   6	Crime investigation files (160), 1963, n.d.
Box   16 Folder   7	Legal holidays (182), 1962-1963
Box   16 Folder   8	Payroll exclusions for employees of the university, (184), 1962-1963
Box   16 Folder   9	Reapportionment, 1964
Box   16 Folder   10	Scholarships , (1959-1964)
Box   16 Folder   11	Telephone rates for telephone company employees (ASB866), 1964
Box   16 Folder   12	University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Box   16 Folder   13	Wisconsin State Building Commission
	1965-1966
	Alphabetical files
Box   16 Folder   14	Agency shop for public employees (SB248 & AB389), 1965-1966
Box   16 Folder   15	Alienation of affection/abolishing actions, 1965
Box   16 Folder   16	Americanism vs. communism (SB 459), 1965-1966, n.d.
Box   16 Folder   17	Anti-smut literature (SB102), 1965-1966
Box   25 Folder   3	Appointments, ca. 1964-1965
Box   16 Folder   18	Branch banking (AB420), 1965
Box   16 Folder   19	Budget deliberations (AB99), 1965, n.d.
Box   17 Folder   1-2	Cardinal controversy, 1965
Box   17 Folder   3	Consumer fraud, 1965-1966
Box   17 Folder   4	Election laws (LRB12), 1966
Box   17 Folder   5	Fair housing legislation (SB310 & AB413), 1965
Box   17 Folder   6	Gas tax for recreational boat use, n.d.
Box   17 Folder   7	Harrison Oil company (SB608), 1965-1966
Box   17 Folder   8	Highways and highway safety, 1965-1966
Box   17 Folder   9	Home and Family Council, 1965-1966
Box   17 Folder   10	Huber Law extension, 1963-1965
Box   17 Folder   11	Integrated Family Court study, 1966
Box   17 Folder   12	Judicial retirement, 1965-1966
Box   17 Folder   13	Juveniles, 1965-1966
Box   17 Folder   14	Legislative Council, 1966
Box   17 Folder   15	Mental Health Compact, 1965
Box   17 Folder   16	Milwaukee County taxes, 1966, n.d.
Box   17 Folder   17	Nuclear Facilities Committee, 1963-1966, n.d.
Box   17 Folder   18	Oleomargarine, 1965
Box   17 Folder   19	Operations on mental patients, 1965
Box   18 Folder   1	Outstanding Young Man Award, 1965
Box   18 Folder   2	Polygraphs, 1965, n.d.
Box   18 Folder   3	Reapportionment (Amendment to U.S. constitution SJR22), 1965
Box   18 Folder   4	Silent prayer bill (SB408), 1965
Box   18 Folder   5	Scholarship and Loan Committee, 1965
Box   18 Folder   6	Social Development Commission, 1965-1966
Box   18 Folder   7	State Treasurer, 1966
Box   18 Folder   8	Transfer of real estate, Filing report penalty, (SB207), 1965-1966
Box   18 Folder   9	UW-Milwaukee investigation, 1963-1964
Box   18 Folder   10	UW-Milwaukee Maintenance Department, 1966
Box   18 Folder   11	UW-Milwaukee parking and expansion, 1965-1966, n.d.
Box   18 Folder   12	Water zoning (LRB468), 1965
Box   18 Folder   13	Wisconsin State Building Commission, 1964-1966
	Bill files
	Assembly bills
Box   18 Folder   14-15	1-588
Box   19 Folder   1-2	615-1037
Box   19 Folder   3	Joint resolutions
Box   19 Folder   4-9	Senate bills
Box   19 Folder   10	Proposed and future legislation
	1967-1968
	Alphabetical files
Box   25 Folder   4	Appointments, 1967
Box   20 Folder   1-2	Code of ethics, n.d.
Box   20 Folder   3	Council of State Governments, 1967
Box   20 Folder   4	Educational television, 1967, n.d.
Box   20 Folder   5	Elementary and Secondary Education Act, 1966, n.d.
Box   20 Folder   6	Floor debate schedule, 1967
Box   20 Folder   7	Highway and highway safety, 1967
Box   20 Folder   8	Legislative Organization, Joint Committee on, 1967
Box   20 Folder   9	Legislative staff improvement, 1967, n.d.
Box   20 Folder   10	Medical Education Task Force, 1966-1967
Box   20 Folder   11	Milwaukee Medical Center, 1966-1967
Box   20 Folder   12	Milwaukee school problems, 1967
Box   20 Folder   13	Milwaukee teachers, 1967, n.d.
Box   25 Folder   5	Mott Case, 1968
Box   20 Folder   14	Open occupancy, 1967, n.d.
Box   20 Folder   15	Republican Caucus bill assignments, 1967
Box   20 Folder   16	University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Department of Religious Studies, 1966-1967, n.d.
Box   20 Folder   17	University of Wisconsin Riots, Senate Select Committee on, 1966-1967
Box   20 Folder   18	Whitefish Bay State Park, 1966-1967, n.d.
Box   20 Folder   19	Wisconsin State Building Commission, 1967-1968
	Bill files
	Assembly bills
Box   20 Folder   20	6-96
Box   21 Folder   1-6	99 (Budget bill)-1103
Box   21 Folder   7	Joint resolutions
	Senate bills
Box   21 Folder   8-9	1-55 (Kellett Reorganization Bill)
Box   22 Folder   1-8	55 (continued)-696
Box   23 Folder   1	Joint resolutions
Box   23 Folder   2	Future and proposed legislation
Box   23 Folder   3	Undated and unsigned miscellany
	Series: Publicity	⇧
	Political files
Box   23 Folder   4	State Senate campaign literature, 1960
Box   23 Folder   5	Senate floor leader campaign, 1962
Box   23 Folder   6-7	Political correspondence, 1963-1964
Box   23 Folder   8	Republican State Senate Campaign Committee, 1965-1966
Box   23 Folder   9	Attorney General campaign, 1965
Box   23 Folder   10-11	Political correspondence, 1966-1968
Box   23 Folder   12	Republican Caucus Columns, 1967
Box   23 Folder   13	United States Senate campaign literature, 1967-1968
Box   24 Folder   1	Political science class evaluations of JGL, 1963
Box   24 Folder   2	“How Do You See It?” Radio interview, 1963
Box   24 Folder   3-5	Speeches, 1963-1968, n.d.
Box   24 Folder   6-8	Press releases, 1960-1968, n.d.
Box   24 Folder   9	Statements, 1962-1967, n.d.
Box   24 Folder   10	Constituent newsletters, 1967-1968