by design | Nov 1, 2026 | Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Ray Hill For decades, one of the constants of Knox County’s political life was Hal Harrison Clements, an attorney who dabbled in politics, although it is likely more accurate to say that he was an attorney whose true vocation was politics and he dabbled in the law...
by design | Oct 25, 2026 | Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Ray Hill Andrew Lawrence Somers has long since been forgotten, but his was an important voice in the U.S. House of Representatives for many years. Somers was first elected to Congress when only 29 years old and stayed there for the rest of his life. The service of...
by design | Oct 18, 2026 | Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Ray Hill Edna Flannery Kelly spent 20 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she represented Brooklyn. Mrs. Kelly was the first woman to be elected to Congress from New York City and made her presence felt in the House. Things might have been very...
by design | Oct 11, 2026 | Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Ray Hill For decades, one of New York State’s most popular public officials was Jacob K. Javits. Rising from a tenement located on the Lower East Side, Javits worked his way through the New York University School of Law and began a law practice with his brother,...
by design | Oct 4, 2026 | Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Ray Hill Throughout his life, Herbert Romulus O’Conor earned a reputation as a man of industry, capability and capacity. O’Conor also possessed an impeccable sense of timing, which, in politics, is a gift from God. As with catching the trapeze bar, timing is...
by design | Sep 27, 2026 | Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Ray Hill Lansdale Ghiselin Sasscer sounds like a name conjured by a writer like Margaret Mitchell, who wrote “Gone With the Wind.” The very name makes one think of Southern aristocracy, and while Lansdale Sasscer lived in a Border State, he was certainly born to...
