November 19, 1928

William A. Oldfield died at age fifty-four in Washington DC after undergoing gall bladder surgery. Oldfield had been elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-first U.S. Congress and to the nine succeeding Congresses, serving from 1909 until his death. He served as a member of the House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means and was chosen as chair of the Democratic Congressional Committee, campaigning across the country for Democratic candidates and incumbents. He was reelected to the Seventy-first Congress, his tenth consecutive term, but he died before he could take office. His wife, Pearl Oldfield, was elected to serve out his term, becoming the first woman from Arkansas elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.