By Ray Hill By 1940, Kenneth McKellar had represented Tennessee in the United States Senate longer than any other man. At seventy-one, the senator showed no signs of slowing down, much less retiring. McKellar loved his job and was quite good at it. It was...
A Feudin’ Son of Tennessee: Kenneth McKellar, Chapter 12
By Ray Hill E. H. Crump, leader of the Shelby County political machine, had been bitterly disappointed by his favored candidate for the 1936 gubernatorial nomination, Gordon Browning. Crump and U. S. Senator Kenneth McKellar had disagreed over the gubernatorial...
A Feudin’ Son of Tennessee: Kenneth McKellar, Chapter 11
By Ray Hill Kenneth McKellar was Tennessee’s senior United States Senator and had been reelected easily in 1934 for another six-year term. McKellar had carried with him his junior colleague Nathan L. Bachman and Governor Hill McAlister. The alliance between McKellar...
A Feudin’ Son of Tennessee: Kenneth McKellar, Chapter 10
By Ray Hill Kenneth McKellar was sixty-five years old in 1934 as he sought reelection to a fourth term in the United States Senate. Congressman Gordon Browning had thought to challenge McKellar, but decided against it when he could get not a single pledge of...
A Feudin’ Son of Tennessee: Kenneth McKellar, Chapter 9
By Ray Hill The political partnership of U. S. Senator Kenneth McKellar and Memphis Boss Ed Crump had made them the masters of Tennessee politics by 1933. The correspondence between the two was voluminous, as they discussed appointments, political developments...
A Feudin’ Son of Tennessee: Kenneth McKellar, Chapter 8
By Ray Hill The collapse of the House of Caldwell not only destroyed Governor Henry Horton politically, but Luke Lea as well. The governor, by the slimmest of margins, only narrowly escaped being impeached. The fall of Caldwell and Company would have far...
A Feudin’ Son of Tennessee: Kenneth McKellar, Chapter 7
By Ray Hill Republicans had done well in Tennessee during the decade of the 1920s in Tennessee. The zenith of Republican success was 1920 when Warren Harding had carried the state; the GOP had elected a governor, and won five out of ten Congressional seats....
A Feudin’ Son of Tennessee: Kenneth McKellar, Chapter 6
By Ray Hill Tennessee’s senior United States Senator, John Knight Shields, proved to be less than thrilled with President Woodrow Wilson’s cherished idea of America participating in the League of Nations. Senator Shields, unlike most Tennessee Democrats, didn’t...
A Feudin’ Son of Tennessee: Kenneth McKellar, Chapter 5
By Ray Hill When K. D. McKellar first entered the United States Senate on March 4, 1917, he was forty-eight years old. One long-time Senate employee recalled McKellar was well dressed, “a real Beau Brummell.” McKellar frequently wore a black bow tie and...
A Feudin’ Son of Tennessee: Kenneth McKellar, Chapter 4
By Ray Hill Tennessee Democrats entered the 1910 gubernatorial campaign divided and in disarray. Many Democrats breathed a collective sigh of relief when the veteran old campaigner Robert Love Taylor agreed to seek the governorship. Taylor had been Governor...
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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...