by Ray Hill | Jan 27, 2013 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
By Ray Hill Rixey Smith, Senator Carter Glass’s long-time Secretary, wrote a flattering biography of his boss entitled “Unreconstructed Rebel: Carter Glass” and that Glass certainly was. Indeed, it was President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself who had labeled Glass an...
by Ray Hill | Jan 20, 2013 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
By Ray Hill For decades the Bankhead family was one of the most politically prominent in the state. Today, perhaps the best-known member of the family is the late actress Tallulah Bankhead, yet Miss Bankhead’s father William was Speaker of the U. S. House of...
by Ray Hill | Jan 13, 2013 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
By Ray Hill Few men have lived as colorful and productive a life as did William Gibbs McAdoo, who was, incidentally, a one-time resident of Knoxville. A lawyer, businessman, son-in-law of a President of the United States, member of a President’s Cabinet, U.S....
by Ray Hill | Jan 6, 2013 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
By Ray Hill William Edgar Borah was one of the most celebrated members of the United States Senate during his time. Enormously popular in his state of Idaho, Borah was an impressive orator, regularly filling the Senate galleries when he spoke and his speeches were...
by Ray Hill | Dec 23, 2012 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
By Ray Hill Few members of the United States Senate had as colorful or stormy a career as Burton Kendall Wheeler of Montana. The fact Wheeler came to represent Montana in the Senate in the first place was an accident of fate, as Wheeler had been born in Hudson,...
by Ray Hill | Dec 16, 2012 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
By Ray Hill It seems highly unlikely anyone could be elected to any office today if he or she exhibited just a few of the eccentricities that were a part of James Hamilton Lewis. Lewis was even for his time somewhat eccentric in his appearance and dress, but he...
