Born in
Valeene,
Indiana, Summers attended the public schools. He was graduated from the Southern Indiana Normal College at
Mitchell, Indiana, in 1889 and from the Kentucky School of Medicine at
Louisville in 1892. He pursued postgraduate studies in the Louisville Medical College and in
New York,
London,
Berlin, and the
University of Vienna,
Austria.
Medical career He commenced the practice of medicine in
Mattoon,
Illinois. He moved to
Walla Walla,
Washington, in 1908 and continued the practice of medicine. He also engaged in agricultural pursuits and fruit raising.
Congress He served as member of the State house of representatives in 1917. Summers was elected as a
Republican to the
Sixty-sixth and to the six succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1919 – March 3, 1933). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1932 to the
Seventy-third Congress, and for election in 1934 to the
Seventy-fourth Congress and in 1936 to the
Seventy-fifth Congress.
Later career and death He resumed former pursuits. Summers was married to Jennie ( Burks) Summers (1867–1956), a member of the Christian Women's Temperance Union, as well as active member of many club, church and organizational groups. Summers died in
Walla Walla, Washington on September 25, 1937. He was interred in Mountain View Cemetery, alongside his wife, Jennie.
Family Summers' daughter,
Hope, was a film and television actress, best remembered by TV audiences on TV's on
The Andy Griffith Show and
Mayberry R.F.D., as
Aunt Bee's gossipy best friend
Clara Edwards (1960–71). ==References==