James Edward Ruffin

James Edward Ruffin (July 24, 1893 – April 9, 1977) was a U.S. Representative from Missouri and a longtime attorney in both private practice and the United States Department of Justice. Born on a farm near Covington, Tipton County, Tennessee, he moved in childhood with his parents to Aurora, Lawrence County, Missouri, where he was raised in a rural community that would shape his early life and education.

Ruffin attended the public schools of Aurora and graduated from Aurora High School in 1912. He then enrolled at Drury College (now Drury University) in Springfield, Missouri, from which he graduated in 1916. During his college years he was active in campus life and was a member of the local fraternity Phi Alpha Sigma, later becoming affiliated with the national fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha. His liberal arts education and collegiate associations helped prepare him for a professional career in teaching, law, and public service.

Following his graduation from Drury, Ruffin briefly entered the field of education. In 1917 he taught at Nickerson (Kansas) College, reflecting an early interest in academic and civic pursuits. Later that year, as the United States expanded its involvement in World War I, he entered military service. He was commissioned a first lieutenant on November 27, 1917, and served in the Fifty-third Regiment, Pioneer Infantry. Ruffin saw overseas duty with the First and Thirty-fifth Divisions of the American Expeditionary Forces. He remained in uniform through the end of the conflict and was honorably discharged on June 3, 1919.

After returning from military service, Ruffin pursued legal training. He enrolled in the Cumberland School of Law at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, and graduated in 1920. That same year he was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in Springfield, Missouri. Establishing himself in the local legal community, he handled a general practice and soon entered public service at the municipal level. From 1926 to 1928 he served as assistant city attorney of Springfield, gaining experience in public law and city governance that would later support his move into national politics.

Ruffin was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-third Congress and served as a U.S. Representative from Missouri during the term that began on March 4, 1933, coinciding with the early years of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration and the New Deal. Representing his Missouri constituency in the House of Representatives, he participated in the legislative work of a Congress preoccupied with responding to the Great Depression. In 1934 he sought renomination to the Seventy-fourth Congress but was unsuccessful in his bid, bringing his period of elected federal service to a close after a single term.

Following his congressional service, Ruffin continued his career in federal public service within the executive branch. On May 9, 1935, he was appointed special assistant to the Attorney General of the United States. Assigned to the criminal division of the Department of Justice, he served in that capacity from 1935 until August 1953. During these eighteen years he was involved in the enforcement of federal criminal law through a period that spanned the latter New Deal era, World War II, and the early Cold War, contributing to the Department’s work on a wide range of federal prosecutions and legal matters.

After leaving the Department of Justice in 1953, Ruffin returned to Springfield, Missouri, where he resumed the private practice of law. He continued to reside in Springfield for the remainder of his life, maintaining his professional ties to the legal community and to the region where he had been educated and first established his career. James Edward Ruffin died in Springfield on April 9, 1977. He was interred in East Lawn Cemetery, closing a life that encompassed military service in World War I, a term in the U.S. House of Representatives, and nearly two decades as a senior attorney in the Department of Justice.