Leslie Biffle

{{Short description|American former Secretary of Senate (1889–1966)}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Leslie L. Biffle | caption = Leslie Biffle c. 1945 | office = Secretary of the United States Senate | order = 15th & 17th | term_start = February 8, 1945 | term_end = January 4, 1947 | leader = Alben W. Barkley | predecessor = Edwin A. Halsey | successor = Carl A. Loeffler | leader2 = Scott W. Lucas | predecessor2 = Carl A. Loeffler | term_start2 = January 3, 1949 | term_end2 = January 3, 1953 | successor2 = J. Mark Trice | birth_date = {{birth date|1889|10|09}} | birth_place = Boydsville, Clay County, Arkansas, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1966|04|06|1889|10|09}} | death_place = Washington, D.C., U.S. | party = Democratic | spouse = {{marriage|Mary Glade Strickling|1921}} | alma_mater = Business school (Little Rock, Arkansas) | occupation = {{hlist|Political operative|legislative administrator}} }}

'''Leslie L. Biffle''' (October 9, 1889 – April 6, 1966) was an American Democratic Party official who served as Secretary of the United States Senate from 1945 to 1947 and 1949 to 1953.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Leslie L. Biffle (1889–1966) |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/leslie-l-biffle-8437/ |access-date=2025-04-04 |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xkkEAAAAMBAJ&dq=leslie+biffle&pg=PA65 |title=LIFE |date=1946-06-10 |publisher=Time Inc |language=en}}</ref>

== Early life and career == Born in Boydsville, Clay County, Arkansas, Biffle grew up in Piggott, Arkansas, where his father, William B. Biffle, was a local Democratic Party official. After attending business school in Little Rock, he moved to Washington, D.C., in 1909 to work as secretary for U.S. Representative Robert B. Macon and later Senator James Paul Clarke. During World War I, he served as an auditor for the American Expeditionary Forces in France.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Leslie L. BIFFLE b. 9 Oct 1889 Boydsville, Clay Co, AR d. 6 Apr 1966: Doddridge County Roots |url=https://www.doddridgecountyroots.com/tng/getperson.php?personID=I120474&tree=dcr |access-date=2025-04-04 |website=www.doddridgecountyroots.com}}</ref>

== Senate career ==

=== Democratic operative === In 1925, Biffle was appointed assistant secretary for Senate Democrats under Majority Leader Joseph T. Robinson, who advised him to "keep your eyes and ears open and your damn mouth shut".<ref>{{Cite web |title=U.S. Senate: Leslie Biffle, Secretary of the Senate, 1945-1947; 1949-1953 |url=https://www.senate.gov/about/officers-staff/secretary-of-the-senate/SOS-Leslie-Biffle.htm |access-date=2025-04-04 |website=www.senate.gov}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=The Senate's Keeper of Secrets LESLIE L. BIFFLE |url=https://knoxfocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Leslie-L.-Biffle-The-Senates-Keeper-of-Secrets.pdf}}</ref> He became majority secretary in 1933, managing "pair votes" to pass New Deal legislation and forging alliances with senators like Harry S. Truman, whom he mentored upon Truman's Senate arrival in 1935.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Libbey |first=James K. |title=The Assistant Majority Leader and the New Deal', Alben Barkley: A Life in Politics |publisher=(Lexington, KY, 2016; online edn, Kentucky Scholarship Online, 22 Sept. 2016)}}</ref>

=== Secretary of the Senate === Biffle was unanimously elected Secretary of the Senate in 1945, a rare bipartisan endorsement. His tenure coincided with Truman's presidency, and the two maintained a direct phone line between Biffle's office and the White House. His back office, dubbed "Biff's Diner," became a hub for senators and lobbyists seeking Truman's ear.<ref name=":0" />

When Republicans regained the Senate in 1947, Biffle became executive director of the Democratic Policy Committee before resuming his secretary role in 1949.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Isabella County Daily Times-News 30 November 1948 — Digital Michigan Newspapers Collection |url=https://digmichnews.cmich.edu/?a=d&d=IsabellaICDTN19481130-01.1.3 |access-date=2025-04-04 |website=digmichnews.cmich.edu}}</ref>

=== 1948 election and later work === Biffle bolstered Truman’s underdog 1948 campaign by posing as a chicken farmer in a straw hat and truck to poll voters in the Midwest.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hamby |first=Alonzo L. |title=Man of the people: a life of Harry S. Truman |date=1995 |publisher=Oxford Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-19-504546-8 |location=New York, NY}}</ref> His optimistic analysis proved accurate when Truman won re-election. Biffle retired in 1953 after Republicans regained the Senate but remained a consultant until his death in 1966.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-11-02 |title=Vintage Chicago Tribune: 5 things that led to 'Dewey Defeats Truman,' the newspaper's most famous headline |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2023/11/02/vintage-chicago-tribune-5-things-that-led-to-dewey-defeats-truman-the-newspapers-most-famous-headline/ |access-date=2025-04-04 |website=Chicago Tribune |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=McCullough |first=David G. |title=Truman |date=2002 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-0-671-86920-5 |series=Simon & Schuster paperbacks |location=New York}}</ref>

== References ==  {{reflist}}

Category:1889 births Category:1966 deaths Category:20th-century American politicians Category:Secretaries of the United States Senate Category:People from Clay County, Arkansas Category:Joseph McCarthy