# Pat Leary — Cimarron character guide

> Pat Leary in Cimarron by Edna Ferber.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mr. Leary, Leary, Mr. Patrick Leary

**First appearance:** 0010-vii

## Snapshot

A pompous Irish lawyer and would-be governor who struts sitting down, and who learns in one Osage courtroom what it costs to cross Yancey Cravat.

## Who they are

Pat Leary married an Indian girl out of the scarcity of women in the early Oklahoma country, and now he prosecutes Dixie Lee with a ruthlessness meant to launch a political career. He sees Yancey Cravat slumped in his chair and mistakes defeat for surrender, finishing his oration with a brutality that reddens even Dixie's pale face. What follows in Judge Sipes's crude courtroom becomes the novel's great set piece on frontier oratory, and Leary its unforgettable, deflated butt.

## In the story

### [XIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/cimarron_se/chapters/xiii)

Station agent who informs Sabra of Yancey's shooting of the Kid; busy sending telegraphs about the event.

### [Chapter XVI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/cimarron_se/chapters/xvi)

Prosecuting attorney in the Dixie Lee case, wearing a solemn suit of black.

### [XVII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/cimarron_se/chapters/xvii)

Prosecutes Dixie Lee with vicious rhetoric.

### [Chapter XXI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/cimarron_se/chapters/xxi)

Once a section hand, now rich through oil holdings; his Indian wife Crook Nose is considered picturesque by Eastern operators.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/cimarron_se/characters/pat_leary
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/cimarron_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/cimarron_se/characters