Cowboy Entertainer: Glen H. Taylor of Idaho By Ray Hill Someone once described politics as show business for ugly people.  Certainly, show business and politics are related and may very well be kissing cousins.  Ronald Reagan, George Murphy, Arnold Schwarzenegger,...

The Southern Gentleman Winfield Dunn Editor’s Note: The Knoxville Focus is running this reprint of Ray Hill’s column from September 2013 on former Governor Winfield Dunn to honor his passing last month. By Ray Hill Bryant Winfield Culberson Dunn was born July 1, 1927,...

D. Worth Clark of Idaho By Ray Hill David Worth Clark was something of a political wunderkind in his day, first winning election to Congress at age thirty-two.  While he only served a single term in the United States Senate, it was during one of the most critical...

The Gentleman From Mississippi William M. Colmer By Ray Hill William Meyers Colmer is one of the longest-serving members of the U.S. House of Representatives in Congress. Colmer was elected to the House at a time when Southern states were ruled by one party and...

James P. Kem of Missouri By Ray Hill The election of 1946 carried numerous Republican candidates into Congress on a tidal wave of dissatisfaction with war-time regulations still in place following the Second World War. No loss was as personally galling to President...

James P. Pope of Idaho & Tennessee By Ray Hill I doubt very much if any readers recall James Pinckney Pope, but there was a time when his name was quite well known here. Indeed, for 24 years of his life, Jim Pope lived in Knoxville with his wife, Pauline; Jim Pope...

Frank A. Barrett of Wyoming By Ray Hill There was a time when Wyoming was not such a rock-ribbed Republican state.  Like much of the rest of the country, with the advent of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, Wyoming elected its share of Democrats to statewide...

The Gentleman From Alabama: George Huddleston By Ray Hill Courtly, nicely dressed and usually wearing a black bowtie, George Huddleston, to all outward appearances, seemed to be a typical Southern congressman.  A fiery speaker, Huddleston had been a successful...

William B. Umstead of North Carolina Like Cameron Morrison and Clyde R. Hoey before him, William Bradley Umstead served as a congressman, U.S. senator and governor of North Carolina.  Although both his time in the United States Senate and as governor were abbreviated,...

Song & Dance Man in the Senate George Murphy of California By Ray Hill The most notable actor who transitioned to politics was, of course, Ronald Reagan. Later came Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was elected governor. Before either Reagan or Schwarzenegger were...