These biographical and historical sketches are highlights of Missouri history. Many sketches are from Missouri, Day by Day , published by the State Historical Society of Missouri in 1942. Links are to related primary sources at the Western Historical Manuscript Collection on the four campuses of the University of Missouri system.
Previous sketches are also available.
The following sketch is excerpted from Dictionary of Missouri Biography , published in 1999 by the University of Missouri Press. In his four years in the United States House of Representatives, Jerry L. Litton accomplished as much as many congressmen do in their extended careers. A successful cattle rancher, he advocated the rights of farmers and all hardworking citizens. Litton was born in a farmhouse without plumbing or electricity near Lock Springs, Missouri, on May 12, 1937. During his youth, an accident crippled his father, forcing his mother to support the family by selling milk from the family's eleven cows.