By Ray Hill The political pot in Tennessee ceased to boil when Governor Gordon Browning appointed George L. Berry, President of the International Printing and Pressmen’s Union, to the United States Senate on May 7, 1937. Still, the pot certainly continued to...
The 1938 Senate Primary in Tennessee,II
By Ray Hill The unexpected death of Senator Nathan L. Bachman had plunged Tennessee politics into turmoil. The responsibility for filling the vacancy caused by Senator Bachman’s death fell to Governor Gordon Browning. The pressure on Browning very quickly became...
The 1938 Senate Primary in Tennessee, I
By Ray Hill Nathan Lynn Bachman, Tennessee’s junior United States senator, had every reason in the world to be content; he had easily been reelected to his first six-year term in November of 1936. Bachman was also one of the most personally popular members of the...
The Professor In Politics: J. William Fulbright of Arkansas
By Ray Hill While growing up, one of the names I heard most frequently on the television news was that of J. William Fulbright, the senator from Arkansas and Chairman of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee. Of course that was during a time when there were...
Tennessee’s Congressional Delegation 1945-46 (Part 2)
By Ray Hill Harold Earthman had been a successful businessman, served for a brief time in the Tennessee House of Representatives and as the County Judge (or County Mayor) of Rutherford County. A portly man with prematurely gray hair, Earthman easily won the...
Tennessee’s Congressional Delegation 1945-46
By Ray Hill Tennessee was represented by ten men in the U. S. House of Representatives and two in the United States Senate in 1945. This column will provide mini-biographies of Tennessee’s Congressional delegation at that time. Kenneth D. McKellar was Tennessee’s...
The Senator And Mrs. Vanderbilt: Senator Peter Gerry of Rhode Island
By Ray Hill There are few people in our community who haven’t either heard of or visited the magnificent Biltmore House. Biltmore was the vision of George Washington Vanderbilt II, the grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. George Vanderbilt’s father, William,...
The Old Warhorse of Tennessee Politics: Benton McMillin
By Ray Hill Almost entirely forgotten today, Benton McMillin was one of the most popular politicians in Tennessee for decades. McMillin served in Congress for twenty years, two terms as Tennessee’s governor, and went on to serve as a diplomat. McMillin’s wife,...
The Boy Wonder: Senator Rush Holt of West Virginia
By Ray Hill Political success can come quickly and just as quickly be snuffed out. Rush D. Holt of West Virginia is a prime example of stunning political success at an early age, his electoral career squandered either through insistence upon remaining true to his...
Senator Nathan L. Bachman
By Ray Hill Nathan L. Bachman is little remembered today, but was a highly regarded jurist and a popular United States Senator from Tennessee. Bachman was born August 2, 1878 into a prominent family. He attended at least three colleges before setting out to earn a...
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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...