Bruce Alger Bruce Reynolds Alger ( born June 12 , 1918 ) is an American politician and a former Republican U . S . representative from Texas , the first to have represented a Dallas district since Reconstruction . He served from 1955 until 1965 . Though born in Dallas , Alger was reared in Webster Groves , Missouri , a small suburb of St . Louis , Missouri . Background . Alger was born to David Bruce Alger , a bank representative , and Clare Alger ( née Freeman ) , an aspiring poet and writer . Alger attended Princeton University in New Jersey on a scholarship . There he studied philosophy , art , and music , and was a center for the football team . After his graduation in 1940 , he went to work for the RCA Corporation as a field representative . With the coming of World War II , he joined the United States Army , assigned to Squadron 5 at the Army Air Corps Advanced Flying School at Kerry Field , Texas . He flew bombers and attained the rank of captain , claiming to be among the first American troops in Japan after the conclusion of the war in August 1945 . He received the Distinguished Flying Cross . On returning to civilian life , RCA refused to rehire him on the grounds that he had been out of television production for too long . In 1945 , Alger moved to Dallas and formed his own real estate and land development company . He was chosen as the first president of the White Rock Chamber of Commerce . Congressional service ( 1955 – 1965 ) . In 1954 , Alger became the Republican candidate for U . S . House of Representatives for Texas ' 5th congressional district . Considering his state ' s Democratic tradition , it was unexpected that Alger would win . He received 27 , 982 ballots ( 52 . 9 percent ) to Democrat Wallace H . Savage ' s 24 , 904 ( 47 . 1 percent ) . He was the only Republican in the Texas delegation for eight years until 1963 , when Ed Foreman of Odessa , later of Dallas , joined Alger for the final two years of his tenure . Alger served during the heyday of the Lyndon B . Johnson and Sam Rayburn era . As a Republican and a most conservative Republican at that , he was the odd man out in the Texas delegation . Alger considered himself an individualist , a Constitutionalist , and a man of principles . Critics , however , equated his principles to stubbornness . His belief in limited government conflicted with many of his colleagues , who expected to trade for votes on various issues and projects , something he refused to do . In the era of civil rights , he believed that solutions lay with local , not national government . He maintained that the national government should concentrate on defense and foreign affairs . He believed that the responsibility for social programs belonged at the local level . He was the only member of the House , for example , to oppose the popular school lunch program . According to " Time magazine " magazine ( January 6 , 1958 ) , Alger assessed the upcoming second session of the Democratic 85th Congress in a pessimistic but resolved vein : " I foresee bitterness and hatefulness . . . We are going to squabble and fight and make the world think we hate each other and that we can ' t solve our problems . We are going to have bigger and bigger budgets , higher taxes , more government spending at home and abroad , and more inflation accompanied by deficit financing . Happy New Year ! " In 1960 , Alger organized a protest at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas against Lyndon Johnson , by then the U . S . Senate majority leader , who was campaigning to become as John F . Kennedy ' s running mate . Alger held a placard which stated , " LBJ Sold Out to Yankee Socialists . " The rally turned ugly , and Lady Bird Johnson was spat upon by a protestor . House Speaker Sam Rayburn of Bonham particularly disliked Alger and was often brutal toward the Republican " interloper " in the Texas delegation . Lyndon Johnson , on the other hand , was often deferential to the Republican U . S . Senator John G . Tower , Johnson ' s 1960 general election opponent and long - term Senate successor , because of Tower ' s support for Johnson on the Vietnam War . Rayburn , though friendly with House Republican Leader Joseph W . Martin of Massachusetts , would have been elated had he lived to see Alger defeated after a decade of House service . Defeated for reelection , 1964 . In 1956 and 1958 , Alger defeated two Democrats who later became well - known names in the state . In 1956 , he edged Henry Wade , the Dallas County district attorney who emerged seventeen years later as the defendant in the " Roe v . Wade " abortion case . Alger polled 102 , 380 ( 55 . 6 percent ) to Wade ' s 81 , 705 ( 44 . 4 percent ) . In 1958 , a heavily Democratic year nationally , Alger defeated Barefoot Sanders , 62 , 722 ( 52 . 6 percent ) to 56 , 566 ( 47 . 4 percent ) . Sanders was later appointed a U . S . District Judge by President Johnson and was in 1972 the unsuccessful Democratic nominee against Senator Tower . Alger ' s opposition to " big government " in time worked against him politically . In 1962 , he won his last term in the House with 89 , 938 votes ( 56 . 3 percent ) to Democrat Bill Jones ' 69 , 813 ( 43 . 7 percent ) . Alger was unseated in the 1964 general election by the former mayor of Dallas , Democrat Earle Cabell . Alger polled 127 , 568 ballots ( only 42 . 5 percent ) , a considerable number of votes in a House election . Yet , turnout was so much higher in 1964 than in 1962 that Alger lost even though he polled nearly 40 , 000 more votes in the latter year than in the former . Cabell prevailed with 172 , 287 ( 57 . 5 percent ) . Alger ' s defeat can be attributed to : In a 1971 interview with the historian Joe B . Frantz of the University of Texas , John Tower discussed his relationship with Alger , noting that Tower would have deferred to Alger in the 1961 special U . S . Senate election had Alger wanted to run : " Bruce and I got along very well together . Bruce is a very inflexible man and a suspicious man . He questioned the intellectual honesty of men like Mr . Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson , and so he just didn ' t make any friends . I have never yet publicly said one disparaging word about a fellow member of the Texas delegation , and don ' t intend to , although some of them have been inclined to say things about me publicly from time to time . I won ' t respond . " Return to private life . After a decade in Congress , Alger resumed working as a real estate broker . He moved for a time to Florida but returned to Dallas in 1976 . He remained out of the political limelight , except for a few occasional public appearances . Alger ' s extensive congressional papers are located in the archives section of the Dallas Public Library . Alger resides in Carrollton in Dallas County . He and James D . Martin , a Republican from Alabama , are among the oldest living former members of the U . S . House . Coincidentally , Martin entered the House for a single term as Alger was vacating his seat .