James A. Foley


James Aloysius Foley was an American lawyer and politician from New York.

Life

He was the son of James Foley and Anne Moran Foley. He graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1901; and from New York Law School in 1904.
Foley was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911 and 1912; and was Chairman of the Committee on Affairs of Cities in 1911.
He was a member of the New York State Senate from 1913 to 1919, sitting in the 136th, 137th, 138th, 139th, 140th, 141st and 142nd New York State Legislatures ; and was Minority Leader in 1919.
He was a member of the New York State Commission for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915.
On June 21, 1919, he married Mabel Graham Murphy, the step-daughter of Tammany Boss Charles Francis Murphy. They had no children.
Foley was Surrogate of New York County from 1920 until his death. In 1924, after the death of his father-in-law, Foley was offered the leadership of Tammany Hall but he declined, preferring to continue on the bench.
He died on February 11, 1946, in the Harkness Pavilion of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in Manhattan, of a heart attack; and was buried at the Calvary Cemetery in Queens.