By Ray Hill During his time, Alben W. Barkley was one of the most famous public officials in the country. Barkley was renowned for his oratory and could be depended upon to give a rousing speech just about anywhere, at any time and on most any topic. Barkley was the son of tenant farmers, born […]
By Ray Hill When folks think in terms of Texas and Connally, the late Governor John Connally usually comes to mind, but there was another Connally who enjoyed a much longer political career: Thomas Terry Connally. Tom Connally was no relation to John Connally and during his time, was far better known. Tom Connally was […]
By Ray Hill When folks think of successful Irish politicians from Massachusetts, they tend to think in terms of the Kennedys, John and Ted. Yet the first and most enduring Irish-Catholic politician from Massachusetts was not a Kennedy; it was David Ignatius Walsh. For over three decades, David I. Walsh defied the political tides and […]
By Ray Hill On January 29, 1952, Kenneth McKellar celebrated his eighty-third birthday. He had served as Tennessee’s United States Senator for quite nearly thirty-six years after almost six years spent in the House of Representatives. McKellar was photographed by the Nashville Banner being fed a piece of cake by one of his secretaries […]
By Ray Hill Richard Riedel was a veteran employee of the United States Senate, working almost fifty years in one capacity or another. Riedel first came to the Senate as a nine-year old Page on September 27, 1918. At the time, Riedel was in the fourth grade and the youngest amongst the Senate’s Pages. […]
By Ray Hill Kenneth McKellar, Tennessee’s eighty-year-old senior U. S. Senator, had resumed his positions of power and influence inside the Senate. His relations with his new and younger colleague, Estes Kefauver, had not improved. The origin of the dispute had occurred when Kefauver, evidently anticipating the election of Republican Thomas E. Dewey instead […]
By Ray Hill With President Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, World War II came to an end. The American people were tiring of rationing and the deprivations brought about by the war effort. Change could not come fast enough to suit most people and in the 1946 elections, Republicans waged a […]
By Ray Hill In 1945 Senator Kenneth McKellar was seventy-six years old and had served in the United States Senate for twenty-nine years, longer than any other Tennessean. McKellar was at the peak of his influence and power in the Senate. He was the Chairman of the most powerful Senate Committee, Appropriations, through which every […]
By Ray Hill Many have long misunderstood U. S. Senator Kenneth McKellar and his complex relations with the Tennessee Valley Authority; in fact, some still perceive McKellar to have been an opponent of the TVA. The fact is the TVA proved to be so popular in Tennessee no elected official could have been legitimately hostile […]
By Ray Hill Kenneth McKellar was well established in the nation’s Capitol and by 1942 had served longer in the Senate than any of his colleagues save for E. D. “Cotton Ed” Smith of South Carolina. He still possessed the piercing blue eyes of his youth, although his once rich brown hair was now […]