Thomas E. Dewey

Thomas Edmund Dewey was the only child of Annie Louise Thomas and George Martin Dewey, Jr. The Deweys Thomas E. Dewey. (The Library of Congress)
were active participants in the Republican Party. Tom's father was editor for the family-owned newspaper, the Owosso Times. When Tom was fifteen, the United States entered World War I (1914–18; war in which Great Britain, France, the United States, and their allies defeated Germany, Austria-Hungary, and their allies) and he found himself part of the Boys Working Reserve, a program for young men under draft age who volunteered to fill the vacant civilian jobs caused by soldiers leaving to fight in the war.

After Tom graduated from Central High School in Owosso he attended the University of Michigan, studying both music and law. After graduating in 1923, he went on to receive a law degree from Columbia Law School in 1925. Dewey stayed in New York to work for several Wall Street law firms. In 1928 Dewey married Frances Eileen Hutt. The couple had two sons, Thomas Edmund Jr. and John Martin Dewey.