By Ray Hill Virtually anything can happen in politics.  The fight for one man, one vote had finally brought about a change in reapportionment, giving urban counties more representation, since districts were drawn according to population.  The rural domination of...

By Ray Hill Watkins Overton had been the longest-serving mayor of Memphis when he had been called back to office in 1949.  Overton was easily reelected to a four-year term in 1951.  Once again, Overton was thwarted by the personal pique of Edward Hull Crump.  A...

By Ray Hill It is truly rare for a politician to be a fixture of the politics of his or her community, state or nation. It does happen, but those political figures whose influence and or service span generations are rare. Ken Hechler was one of those scarce...

The Last Campaign: Overton vs. Orgill By Ray Hill The story of Samuel Watkins Overton is as interesting as it was turbulent.  Overton came from one of Tennessee’s most aristocratic families; his great-great-grandfather John Overton was one of the Volunteer State’s...

By Ray Hill Henry Clay Evans had been elected to Congress from Tennessee’s Third Congressional District in 1888 as a Republican.  His victory had been a profound shock to local Democrats who promptly gerrymandered his district and castigated the congressman for his...

By Ray Hill Robert A. “Fats” Everett lay ailing in Nashville’s Veterans Hospital.  For decades the 6-foot-4 congressman, whose weight teetered between 255 and 370 pounds, had been a fixture in Tennessee politics.  Everett had learned politics from some of the...

By Ray Hill Named for the four-time presidential candidate and Kentucky statesman Henry Clay, H. Clay Evans was a highly important figure in Tennessee’s Republican Party.  Evans had a storied and diverse career, a successful businessman who manufactured freight cars...

Tennessee’s Modern Republican Party: Dan Kuykendall, Part VII By Ray Hill No Republican had represented West Tennessee in Congress since Reconstruction yet Dan Kuykendall was making a spirited challenge to incumbent George W. Grider to represent Memphis in the House...

Jesse Wolcott of Michigan By Ray Hill Short, chunky, and bespectacled, Jesse Wolcott looked more like a small town lawyer or accountant than the ideal of a congressman. Yet the framers of the Constitution meant for the House of Representatives to be the people’s House...

Tennessee’s Modern Republican Party: Dan Kuykendall, Part VI By Ray Hill Dan Kuykendall’s family had originally followed a very famous Tennessean to Texas; the Kuykendalls left their West Tennessee home to go to Texas with Sam Houston.  Dan Kuykendall had returned to...