Daniel Baugh Brewster, Jr. was born on November 23, 1923, in Baltimore County, Maryland, in the Green Spring Valley Region. He was the oldest of six children of Ottolie Y. (Wickes) and Daniel Baugh Brewster.[1][2] Brewster was born into a wealthy family and was "raised in comfort on a beautifully appointed farm in Maryland fox-hunting country". The Washington Post described him as an "inheritor of the Baugh Chemical fortune". His father died when he was 10 years of age.[2]
In 1942, Brewster enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.[3] He was commissioned from the ranks in 1943. During World War II, he served in the Pacific theatre, including participating in the Battle of Guam and the Battle of Okinawa. For his actions during the war, he received a Bronze Star. He was wounded seven times, receiving a Purple Heart and a Gold Star in lieu of a second award.[7] He left active duty in 1946 but continued in the Reserve until 1972, reaching the rank of colonel.[8]
Political career
Maryland House of Delegates (1950-1958)
Brewster, a Democrat,[8] was elected as to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1950.[3] At age 26, he was one of the youngest members of Maryland's state legislature in history.[2] He served in the House of Delegates until 1958.[3]
Brewster sought re-election to the Senate in 1968. However, "his complicated personal life, his support of the Vietnam War and his increasingly serious problems with alcohol took their toll", and he was defeated by Republican Charles Mathias.[7]
In 1978, Brewster stated that the greatest mistake he made in his public life was his support for the Vietnam War.[2]
In 1969, Brewster was indicted on 10 criminal counts of solicitation and acceptance of bribes while a United States senator,[16] as well as two counts of accepting illegal gratuities.[8] The charges stemmed from a campaign contribution by Spiegel, Inc., a mail-order firm. Brewster maintained his innocence.[17]
At trial, the judge dismissed five of the charges, saying that Brewster's actions were protected under the Speech or Debate Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The prosecution appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard the case in 1971 and 1972. In June 1972, the Court held 6 to 3 in United States v. Brewster that the taking of illegal bribes was not protected speech, as taking of a bribe was not part of the "performance of a legislative function".[16][18]
The charges were reinstated. Brewster stood trial and was found "not guilty" of the bribery charges but was convicted of accepting an unlawful gratuity "without corrupt intent." However, in August 1974,[16] his conviction was overturned on appeal due to the trial judge's improper instructions to the jury.[8] In 1975, he pleaded no contest to a single misdemeanor charge of accepting an illegal gratuity "without corrupt intent" and was fined and allowed to keep his law license. The government dropped the other charges.[19][20]
As of 1978, Brewster operated his farm, worked as an alcoholism counselor at a veterans' hospital, led the Governor's Advisory Council on Alcoholism, and worked at "a quarter-way house in Baltimore".[2]
Personal life and death
Brewster married Carol Leiper DeHavenon of Philadelphia in 1954. The couple had two sons, Daniel Baugh Brewster, Jr. (born 1956) and Gerry Leiper Brewster (born 1958).[21]
In 1967, Brewster "attended the funeral of William Bullitt, the U.S. ambassador to France. There, he became reacquainted with Anne Bullitt, Mr. Bullitt's daughter and Mr. Brewster's first fiancee, who had jilted the senator while he was overseas during the war". Brewster divorced his first wife.[7] On April 29, 1967, he married Anne Bullitt (1924–2007) at Glyndon, Maryland.[22] Brewster's second marriage also ended in divorce.[7]
Brewster was an alcoholic. According to his account, his drinking began to spiral out of control in 1964; by 1969, he was "'drinking with a vengeance'", and he almost died following an "alcoholic collapse". He sought inpatient rehabilitation multiple times, and reportedly became sober in 1973.[2]
In 1976, Brewster married Judy Lynn Aarsand after meeting her at an alcohol treatment facility.[7] The couple had three children, Danielle (born 1977) and twins Jennilie and Dana (born 1979).[8] Judy died on October 11, 2024, at her home in Stuart, Florida.[23]
Brewster survived large cell lymphoma and leukemia in the 1980s.[7]
Several individuals who served on Brewster's Senate staff in the 1960s later became politically prominent, including Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer.[24]
In 2023, a biography of Brewster by John W. Frece, Self-Destruction: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of U.S. Senator Daniel B. Brewster, was published by Loyola University Maryland's Apprentice House Press.[25]
^Brewster, Daniel B. (February 9, 1966). "Statement of Daniel B. Brewster". U.S. Senate Hearing Record: Subcommittee On Judicial Machinery of the Committee On the Judiciary. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 238 – via Google Books. ... I also attended both institutions and am a graduate of the University of Maryland...
^ abcdefg"Daniel Brewster papers". Archival Collections at the University of Maryland Libraries. Archived from the original on January 17, 2010. Retrieved December 19, 2008.
