by Ray Hill | Jul 29, 2012 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
By Ray Hill Kenneth McKellar was sixty-five years old in 1934 as he sought reelection to a fourth term in the United States Senate. Congressman Gordon Browning had thought to challenge McKellar, but decided against it when he could get not a single pledge of...
by Ray Hill | Jul 22, 2012 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
By Ray Hill The political partnership of U. S. Senator Kenneth McKellar and Memphis Boss Ed Crump had made them the masters of Tennessee politics by 1933. The correspondence between the two was voluminous, as they discussed appointments, political developments...
by Ray Hill | Jul 15, 2012 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
By Ray Hill The collapse of the House of Caldwell not only destroyed Governor Henry Horton politically, but Luke Lea as well. The governor, by the slimmest of margins, only narrowly escaped being impeached. The fall of Caldwell and Company would have far...
by Ray Hill | Jul 8, 2012 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
By Ray Hill Republicans had done well in Tennessee during the decade of the 1920s in Tennessee. The zenith of Republican success was 1920 when Warren Harding had carried the state; the GOP had elected a governor, and won five out of ten Congressional seats....
by Ray Hill | Jul 1, 2012 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
By Ray Hill Tennessee’s senior United States Senator, John Knight Shields, proved to be less than thrilled with President Woodrow Wilson’s cherished idea of America participating in the League of Nations. Senator Shields, unlike most Tennessee Democrats, didn’t...
by Ray Hill | Jun 24, 2012 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
By Ray Hill When K. D. McKellar first entered the United States Senate on March 4, 1917, he was forty-eight years old. One long-time Senate employee recalled McKellar was well dressed, “a real Beau Brummell.” McKellar frequently wore a black bow tie and...
