“CROSS, HUGH WARE (Illinois, 1939) was born August 24, 1896 in Jerseryville, Illinois, to Edward and Lulu Hazen (Ware) Cross.  Receiving an LL.B. from the University of Illinois in 1921, he practiced with the firm of firm of Cross and Gibbons in Jerseryville.  He as also president of the Jersery County Abstract and Title.

Cross was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives as a Republican from Jersey County in 1932.  He served four consecutive terms and was named speaker when the GOP gained control of the House for the 1939 session.  Successfully running for lieutenant governor of Illinois in 1940,  Cross remained in office until 1948.  The following year he was appointed to the U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission, which he chaired in 1955.

Afterward Cross returned to his law practice and family farm.  He was a member of the Masons, Elks,  Illinois Bar Association and the American Legion.  A Presbyterian, he married Helen McGovern in 1924; the couple had two children. Cross died October 15, 1972, at the age of 76.”

Source:  American Legislative Leaders of the Midwest, by Nancy Weatherly Sharp and James Roger Sharp, Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 1997, page 95