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Jerry Litton

American politician (1937-1976)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ951075
Source-derived summary

Jerry Lon Litton (May 12, 1937 – August 3, 1976) was an American politician from Missouri who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives representing Missouri's 6th congressional district from 1973 until his death in 1976. A member of the Democratic Party, he ran for United States Senate in 1976. Litton won the Democratic primary; however, he died in a plane crash while heading to his victory party.

Early life

Litton was born near Lock Springs, Missouri, in a house without electricity. He was Missouri state president (1955–1956) and national secretary (1956–1957) of the Future Farmers of America (FFA), and he later graduated from the University of Missouri in 1961 with a B.S. in Journalism. He was president of the University of Missouri Young Democrats and chair of the National Youth for Stuart Symington during Symington's unsuccessful 1960 run for U.S. President. Litton served as President of the Theta chapter of the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity.

He made his fortune raising cattle at the Litton Charolais Cattle Ranch in Chillicothe, Missouri. This ranch was maintained as a beautiful showplace where he entertained both the well-connected and constituents. Litton made a point to bring schoolchildren and low-level local leaders to his home.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Jerry Litton” as american politician (1937-1976). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1937, 1976, 1973, 1955—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Jerry, Litton and American can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american politician (1937-1976). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q951075. The first chronological checks are 1937, 1976, 1973 and 1955.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Jerry Litton”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Jerry Litton primary sources, Jerry Litton archive and Jerry research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Jerry Litton”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Jerry Litton” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.