By Ray Hill By 1946 Estes Kefauver had been in Congress for seven years and was contemplating a race against Tennessee’s most powerful political figure, United States Senator Kenneth D. McKellar. Although little known outside his own Congressional district, Kefauver...
The Greatest Campaigner of Them All: Senator Estes Kefauver, Part Three
By Ray Hill Estes Kefauver had started out his political life allied to the ruling faction in Tennessee politics; that of senior Senator Kenneth D. McKellar and E. H. Crump, leader of the Shelby County political machine. With his election to Congress in 1939,...
The Greatest Campaigner of Them All: Senator Estes Kefauver, Part Two
By Ray Hill Congressman Sam D. McReynolds had first been elected in 1922 and had been reelected consistently ever since. McReynolds had been highly popular in Tennessee’s Third Congressional district and he had routinely easily turned back every challenger inside the...
The Greatest Campaigner of Them All: Senator Estes Kefauver, Part One
By Ray Hill My grandmother was from Madisonville, Tennessee and I recall very well her traveling from her home in Maryville to attend the funeral of Senator Estes Kefauver in August of 1963. She retained a fondness for Senator Kefauver throughout her life and never...
Governor Ben W. Hooper
By Ray Hill For years, Ben W. Hooper was the most successful Republican politician in the state of Tennessee, if the measure was the ability to win a statewide election. A fiery and dynamic speaker, Hooper was a successful lawyer, yet he had overcome serious...
Part Eight: Tennessee’s Old Gray Fox Albert Gore
By Ray Hill Senator Albert Gore was campaigning hard for a fourth term in 1970. Gore had fended off a determined challenge in the Democratic primary from Governor Buford Ellington’s former press secretary, Hudley Crockett. Senator Gore’s opposition to the...
Part Seven: Tennessee’s Old Gray Fox Albert Gore
By Ray Hill Congressman Ross Bass had been elected to the United States Senate in 1964 to fill out the remainder of the late Senator Estes Kefauver’s term of office. Senator Bass had to face the voters again in 1966 and the campaign would be a repeat of 1964, with...
Part Six: Tennessee’s Old Gray Fox Albert Gore
By Ray Hill Having won a second six-year term in 1958 over serious opposition, Albert Gore returned to the Senate. Although he had won a smashing reelection victory against former Governor Prentice Cooper, Gore believed the campaign left him with political scars that...
Part Five: Tennessee’s Old Gray Fox Albert Gore
By Ray Hill Albert Gore returned to Washington, D. C. in January of 1953 as a member of the United States Senate after having served fourteen years as a Member of Congress. Gore arrived in the Senate with the reputation of being a giant-killer, having defeated...
Part Four: Tennessee’s Old Gray Fox Albert Gore
By Ray Hill Albert Gore’s Congressional district had been eliminated in the redistricting following the 1950 election. Gore was unconcerned as he had something bigger in mind; he was determined to run for the United States Senate seat held by Kenneth D....
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Edward Hull Crump: The Boss, Part VII
By Ray Hill Despite...
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The U.S. Senate In The Age of McKellar: 1917 – 1953
By Ray Hill Kenneth...
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The Senator’s Secretary: D. W. McKellar
By Ray Hill...
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A Feudin’ Son of Tennessee: Kenneth McKellar Chapter 1
By Ray Hill It will...
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A Feudin’ Son of Tennessee: Kenneth McKellar Chapter 2
By Ray Hill Kenneth McKellar...
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A Feudin’ Son of Tennessee: Kenneth McKellar, Chapter 3
By Ray Hill Even as a...