Connery attended St. Mary's School at Lynn,
Collège de Montréal in
Canada, and the
College of the Holy Cross. He entered the theatrical profession as an
actor. He also was a theater manager. During
World War I he enlisted as a private in the One Hundred and First Regiment, United States Infantry, and served nineteen months in
France. He was an electric company employee, he engaged in the manufacture of candy, and was secretary to the
mayor of Lynn. He was elected as a
Democrat to the
Sixty-eighth and to the seven succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1923, until his death. He served as chairman of the Committee on Labor
Seventy-second through
Seventy-fifth Congresses, where he was the House sponsor of the first version of H.R. 7200, the
Fair Labor Standards Act, alternatively called the Wagner—Connery Act, written by U.S. Senator
Robert F. Wagner. which became law in a later iteration following his death, when it was signed by President Roosevelt on June 25, 1938. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar but did not practice extensively. Connery had returned by train from a speaking tour in Massachusetts when he was stricken by
food poisoning after returning to his home in
Washington, D.C. Experiencing acute abdominal pains, he was taken to the
National Homeopathic Hospital. His condition worsened and did not respond to treatment, and Connery died at the age of 48, only 11 hours after he had been admitted, on June 15, 1937. His interment was in St. Mary's Cemetery in Lynn. ==See also==