James Oliver Eastland (1904-1986) was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1928. He was appointed to fill the U.S. Senate seat of Byron Harrison upon Harrison's death in June 1941, and was elected to that seat in 1942. He served as Senate President Pro Tempore from 1972 to 1978 and as chair of the Judiciary Committee. Twice in the 1970s he was second in the line of presidential succession. Eastland retired in 1978 and is buried in the Eastern Cemetery.