William Brockman Bankhead served Alabama in the U.S. Congress from 1917 until 1940, and for the last four years of his life during Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency he served as the 47th Speaker of the House. He was the son of U.S. Senator John Hollis Bankhead and the brother of U.S. Senator John Hollis Bankhead, Jr. A 1893 graduate of the University of Alabama, where he played fullback on the school's first football team, Bankhead earned his law degree from Georgetown University. He was the father of noted actress Tallulah Bankhead, who was married in this house on August 31, 1937. Upon Bankhead's death on September 15, 1940, President Roosevelt and a large delegation of dignitaries, including future President Harry S. Truman, attended the funeral and burial in Jasper.