William Shane Beardsley (May 13, 1901 – November 21, 1954) was an American politician. He served on the

Iowa Senate The Iowa Senate is the upper house of the Iowa General Assembly, United States. There are 50 seats in the Iowa Senate, representing 50 single-member districts across the state of Iowa with populations of approximately 60,927 per constituency, . ...

from 1933 to 1941, and was a member of the

Iowa House of Representatives The Iowa House of Representatives is the lower house of the Iowa General Assembly, the upper house being the Iowa Senate. There are 100 seats in the Iowa House of Representatives, representing 100 single-member districts across the state, formed ...

between 1947 and 1949. Beardsley was the 31st Governor of

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

from 1949 to 1954.

Biography

Beardsley was born in Beacon, Iowa to William and Carrie Shane Beardsley, and grew up in Birmingham, Iowa. The son of a pharmacist, he attended pharmacy school himself, and established a drugstore in New Virginia, Iowa in 1922. He was elected to the

, and served from 1933 to 1941. From 1938 to 1946, he raised cattle and hogs on his farm in New Virginia. He was appointed to the

in 1947 to fill the term of a Representative who had died, and became a prominent opponent of the labor and education policies of Governor Robert D. Blue, a fellow Republican. In June 1948, Beardsley successfully challenged Blue in the Republican primary, and went on to an easy victory in the general election. Beardsley was known for his advocacy of a balanced state budget, and his opposition to the Truman administration's Brannan Plan. He was reelected in 1950 and 1952, but chose not to run for a fourth term in 1954. During his tenure the following notable accomplishments were achieved: workmen's compensation benefits were increased; the highway patrol was expanded; anti-gambling laws were sanctioned; roads, schools, and institutions were all advanced; and a World War II veteran's bonus was authorized. On November 21, 1954, Beardsley was killed in a highway accident on Iowa 60 just north of Des Moines while returning from a visit to his son, Dan Beardsley, a student at

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the ...

in Ames, Iowa. He is interred at the New Virginia

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

in New Virginia, Iowa.

References

National Governors Association biography

William S. Beardsley at the Iowa General Assembly

TIME Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

, June 21, 1948
"Governor Beardsley of Iowa Is Killed As His Auto Smashes Into Truck"

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

, November 22, 1954 (subscription required)
"Gov. Beardsley, Iowa, killed in auto crash"
Lebanon Daily News, November 22, 1954
"Gov. Beardsley Dies In Auto-Truck Crash"
The Daily Nonpareil, November 22, 1954 {{DEFAULTSORT:Beardsley, William S. 1901 births 1954 deaths Pharmacists from Iowa 20th-century American pharmacists Republican Party members of the Iowa House of Representatives Republican Party Iowa state senators Republican Party governors of Iowa Road incident deaths in Iowa People from Mahaska County, Iowa People from Birmingham, Iowa People from Warren County, Iowa Burials in Iowa 20th-century American politicians