Jerry Pettis

Who was Jerry Pettis?

Jerry Lyle Pettis was an American politician and a Congressman from California. He was also a rancher, teacher, aviator, religious leader, and businessman.

Educated in Arizona and California, he graduated from Pacific Union College in Angwin, California in 1938. He did graduate work at the University of Southern California and the University of Denver in 1939-1941 before becoming a businessman. He served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II and was a pilot for United Airlines.

In 1966, he was elected as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives representing California's 33rd congressional district until January 1975 and its 37th congressional district thereafter. He was re-elected in 1968, 1970, 1972 and 1974 before dying in a private aircraft crash in Banning, California on February 14, 1975. His wife, Shirley Neil Pettis, replaced him in the House when she won a special election on April 29, 1975.

edit: A news clipping currently on sale in eBay shows his grown son standing in a field where Jerry Pettis' body was brought after recovery from the crash site. It stated that he died in a plane crash in the hills North of Beaumont, Ca.