Early life
McCormack was born to Joseph H. McCormack, a hod carrier, and Ellen (ne O’Brien) McCormack. His parents were both the young children of Irish immigrants who had arrived in the course of the Irish potato famine in 1848. There were 12 youngsters, of whom 3 survived to adulthood. McCormack was 13 when his father died he quit school soon after the eighth grade to help support his widowed mother and family as a -a-week errand boy for a brokerage firm. His career began when he shifted to a law firm for a 50-cent raise and studied law on the side. Attending law school at night, he passed the Massachusetts bar exam in 1913 at age 21 without having having completed high school.
Political career
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