Leon H. Gavin was born in Buffalo, New York, and moved to Oil City, Pennsylvania, in 1915. During the First World War he served in the United States Army as a sergeant in the Fifty-first Infantry Regiment of the 6th Infantry Division. He served on the Defense Council of Venango County, Pennsylvania. He was a member of the State Board of Appeals of the Selective Service System, the executive secretary of the Oil City Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the National Migratory Bird Conservation Commission from 1958 to 1963.^[1]

He was elected as a Republican to the 78th United States Congress and to the ten succeeding Congresses and served from January 3, 1943, until his death from a cerebral hemorrhage in Washington, D.C., on September 15, 1963. He is interred in Arlington National Cemetery. Gavin voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960,^[2][3] as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.^[4]

• List of United States Congress members who died in office (1950–1999)

• United States Congress. "Leon H. Gavin (id: G000102)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• The Political Graveyard