Key Pittman

Infobox Senator
name = Key Pittman


imagesize =
small

caption =
jr/sr = United States Senator
state = Nevada
term_start = January 29, 1913
term_end = November 10, 1940
predecessor = William A. Massey
successor = Berkeley L. Bunker
order2 = 83rd President pro tempore of the United States Senate
term_start2 = March 4, 1933
term_end2 = November 10, 1940
vicepresident2 =
viceprimeminister2 =
deputy2 =
president2 =
primeminister2 =
predecessor2 = George H. Moses
successor2 = William H. King
order3 = Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
term_start3 = March 4, 1933
term_end3 = November 10, 1940
vicepresident3 =
viceprimeminister3 =
deputy3 =
president3 =
primeminister3 =
predecessor3 = William E. Borah
successor3 = Walter F. George
birth_date = September 19, 1872
birth_place = Vicksburg, Mississippi
death_date = November 10, 1940 (aged 68)
death_place = Reno, Nevada
constituency =
party = Democratic
spouse =
profession = Lawyer
religion =


footnotes =

Key Pittman (September 19, 1872 – November 10, 1940) was a United States Senator from Nevada. He was a Democrat.

Pittman was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1872 and was educated by private tutors and at the Southwestern Presbyterian University in Clarksville, Tennessee. He studied law, then later became a lawyer. In 1897, he joined in the Klondike Gold Rush and worked as a miner until 1901. Pittman moved to Tonopah, Nevada, in 1902 and continued the practice of law. He represented Nevada at the St. Louis Exposition, the Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition, and the irrigation congress. In 1910, he made an unsuccessful run for the Senate. Later, he was elected as a Democrat to the Senate in 1913 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of George S. Nixon, and served until his death in 1940. Between 1933 and 1940 he was the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations and was also a member of the Committee on Territories and the Committee on Industrial Expositions. In addition, during those years Pittman was President pro tempore of the United States Senate.

Pittman "On Ice"

It was rumored for years that he died before his final election in 1940, and that party leaders kept his body on ice in a hotel bathtub until he was re-elected; this story has been disproven. [http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/docs/nsla/archives/myth/myth03.htm] In fact, he suffered a severe heart attack before the election, and died after the election at the Washoe General Hospital in Reno, Nevada.

His brother, Vail M. Pittman, served as the Governor of Nevada.

Several pieces of legislation bore his name, including the Pittman Act of 1918.

Notes