By Ray Hill Sergeant Alvin York was already quite famous when Warner Brother’s studio released a movie based on his life in 1941. The film would go on to become the highest grossing movie of the year, making York even more famous. Sergeant York topped Clark Gable and Lana Turner in Honky Tonk and Bob […]
By Ray Hill William Anderson was a rare commodity in Tennessee: a military hero who was a liberal, representing a largely rural district. After commanding the submarine Nautilus and making the first successful run under the polar ice cap surrounding the North Pole, Bill Anderson came home to Tennessee and entered politics. From the very […]
Tom Murray of Tennessee By Ray Hill Lest anyone believes being elected to Congress is glamorous and allows one to bask in the limelight of attention by the press and the public, there are far more congressmen slogging through the daily chores that make up a congressman’s day. Even today one only has to listen […]
By Ray Hill Pat Sutton, congressman from Tennessee’s Seventh District, had been renominated over a strong opponent in the 1950 election and reelected that fall. Clearly ambitious, Sutton, like several other Tennessee politicians, was carefully watching Tennessee’s senior United States senator, Kenneth D. McKellar. The venerable McKellar was Tennessee’s longest serving U. S. senator (and […]
A Tennessean on the U.S. Supreme Court By Ray Hill I daresay few of my readers recall a Knoxvillian once sat on the Supreme Court of the United States. Judge Edward Terry Sanford served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1923 until his unexpected death in 1930. Sanford had been the judge […]
By Ray Hill With just weeks before Tennesseans went to the polls, candidates hustled for votes in October of 1964. Tennessee, once solidly Democratic, had become a battleground state. Tennessee had supported Franklin D. Roosevelt in all four of his presidential campaigns, as well as Harry Truman in 1948 over the fierce opposition of E. […]
By Ray Hill The 1964 election in Tennessee centered around the presidential contest between incumbent Lyndon Johnson and Arizona senator Barry Goldwater. It also featured hard fought contests for both of Tennessee’s seats in the United States Senate. Senator Albert Gore, Tennessee’s “Old Gray Fox”, was seeking a third term in the U. S. Senate, […]
By Ray Hill Once a reliably Democratic state, Tennessee was a battleground state in the 1964 election. Congressman Joe L. Evins of Tennessee’s Fourth Congressional District was designated President Lyndon B. Johnson’s campaign manager for the Volunteer State. At the time, there was hardly any congressional district in the state more Democratic than that of […]
By Ray Hill It has been 100 years since Tennessee ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which gave women the right to vote in our country. It seems appropriate to celebrate the occasion in these pages. Tennessee became the battleground state for the ratification of the proposed nineteenth amendment to the Constitution of the […]
By Ray Hill From 1930 until 1964, the Democratic Party reigned supreme in Tennessee. Republicans had only occasionally been able to elect a governor; the last was Alfred A. Taylor in 1920. That year had been something of a high watermark for the GOP. Republicans had won the governorship, as well as five of Tennessee’s […]