By Ray Hill Samuel Watkins Overton, Jr. came from one of Tennessee’s most prominent families; Overton was the great-great grandson of Judge John Overton, a contemporary of General Andrew Jackson and the founder of Memphis. Overton joined the law firm founded by Senator Kenneth D. McKellar in 1922. An aristocrat by Tennessee standards, Watkins Overton […]
By Ray Hill Lawrence Davis Tyson had been elected to the United States Senate to represent Tennessee in 1924. To get to the Senate, Tyson defeated a two-term incumbent and a respected former justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court. L. D. Tyson had won the general election easily and settled comfortably in the Senate. One […]
By Ray Hill Lawrence Davis Tyson was Tennessee’s junior United States senator and while not a professional politician, the senator continued to demonstrate he had learned quite a lot in the short time he had served in the Senate. Possessing a gentlemanly nature, Tyson apparently also possessed a very good memory. Senator L. D. Tyson […]
By Ray Hill Lawrence Davis Tyson, Tennessee’s junior United States senator, was a wealthy former general, industrialist and newspaper publisher. Tyson and his wife, the former Bettie McGhee, lived in a beautiful home in Knoxville. Senator Tyson, tall, with a full head of white hair and neatly trimmed moustache, was especially interested in matters relating […]
By Ray Hill Lawrence D. Tyson was a soldier, business titan, lawyer, owner of the Knoxville Sentinel, and United States senator from Tennessee. Tyson’s only previous political experience had been one term in the Tennessee House of Representatives where he had been promptly elected Speaker. Tyson’s business interests included textile mills and coal concerns. L. […]
By Ray Hill July of 1966 was hot and humid in Tennessee that year. Two veteran campaigners, Governor Frank Clement and Senator Ross Bass, were stumping the state for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate. Both campaigned at a furious pace. The Nashville Tennessean reported one painter busy at work was so startled […]
By Ray Hill Pulaski Congressman Ross Bass had defeated Governor Frank Clement for the Democratic nomination to succeed the late Senator Estes Kefauver. Bass faced Republican Howard Baker in the general election. It was the first time Frank Clement had lost an election and his defeat had been sweeping. Congressman Bass confidently approached the general […]
By Ray Hill Frank Clement was the first incumbent governor in Tennessee to bid for the United States Senate since Tom C. Rye in 1918. The unexpected death of Senator Estes Kefauver on August 10, 1963 necessitated a special election in 1964. For the second time in thirty years, both of Tennessee’s seats in the […]
By Ray Hill Following the unexpected death of Senator Estes Kefauver, jockeying to run in the 1964 special election to serve the remaining term years of Kefauver’s term came down to Congressman Ross Bass of Pulaski and Governor Frank Clement. There seemed to be some possibility incumbent senator Herbert Walters of Morristown might run, […]
By Ray Hill When Senator Estes Kefauver’s aorta ruptured on the evening of August 13, 1963, it set off a scramble to succeed him. Governor Frank Clement appointed millionaire businessman Herbert “Hub” Walters of Morristown to fill the remainder of Kefauver’s term until a special 1964 election could be held. Although conservative by the standard […]
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