By Ray Hill By the last week of June, it was obvious to virtually everyone Senator John Knight Shields was in deep political trouble.  Shields had been the last man elected by the Tennessee General Assembly to serve in the United States Senate after having served for...

By Ray Hill General Lawrence D. Tyson of Knoxville had officially kicked off his campaign for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate in Trenton, Tennessee.  The General spoke before a crowd estimated at 5,000 persons.  Tyson flayed the incumbent,...

By Ray Hill Tennessee’s senior United States senator, John Knight Shields, was a candidate for a third term in 1924.  Shields faced two formidable opponents inside the Democratic primary: General Lawrence D. Tyson of Knoxville and former state Supreme Court Justice...

By Ray Hill John Knight Shields, Tennessee’s senior United States senator, had first been elected in 1913.  Shields had served for a decade on the Tennessee Supreme Court before becoming the last man to be elected to the U. S. Senate by the state legislature.  Shields...

By Ray Hill Samuel Watkins Overton, Jr. came from one of Tennessee’s most prominent families; Overton was the great-great grandson of Judge John Overton, a contemporary of General Andrew Jackson and the founder of Memphis. Overton joined the law firm founded by...

By Ray Hill Lawrence Davis Tyson was Tennessee’s junior United States senator and while not a professional politician, the senator continued to demonstrate he had learned quite a lot in the short time he had served in the Senate. Possessing a gentlemanly nature, Tyson...

By Ray Hill Lawrence Davis Tyson, Tennessee’s junior United States senator, was a wealthy former general, industrialist and newspaper publisher. Tyson and his wife, the former Bettie McGhee, lived in a beautiful home in Knoxville. Senator Tyson, tall, with a full head...

By Ray Hill Dan Kuykendall (pronounced Kirk-en-dall) was the first Republican to be elected to Congress from West Tennessee since 1882.  Kuykendall was also the first Republican to represent E. H. Crump’s former domain of Memphis in the House of Representatives;...

By Ray Hill After Congressman J. Will Taylor died suddenly on November 14, 1939, there was not unexpectedly, a fight inside the Republican Party to succeed him.  The nominee was to be named in a convention by the counties comprising Tennessee’s Second Congressional...

By Ray Hill When Congressman J. Will Taylor died on November 14, 1939, it sent shock waves through Tennessee’s political community.  Taylor had long been enormously popular inside Tennessee’s Second Congressional district and “Hillbilly Bill” had exercised...