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...
by Ray Hill | Jun 17, 2012 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
By Ray Hill Tennessee Democrats entered the 1910 gubernatorial campaign divided and in disarray. Many Democrats breathed a collective sigh of relief when the veteran old campaigner Robert Love Taylor agreed to seek the governorship. Taylor had been Governor...
by Ray Hill | Jun 10, 2012 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
By Ray Hill Even as a freshman Congressman, Kenneth McKellar had demonstrated an ability to bring improvements and projects to his district, a talent that would serve him and Tennessee well during his legislative career. In April of 1912 as much as 170 acres of...
by Ray Hill | Jun 3, 2012 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
By Ray Hill Kenneth McKellar was forty-two years old when first elected to the House of Representatives in a 1911 special election to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Congressman George Washington Gordon. His rise to political prominence had come despite the...
by Ray Hill | May 28, 2012 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
By Ray Hill It will soon be one hundred years since the people of Tennessee elected their first United States Senator by popular vote in 1916. Prior to that time, senators had been elected by state legislatures. The framers of the U. S. Constitution had never...
by Ray Hill | May 20, 2012 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
By Ray Hill Tennessee’s longest serving United States Senator, Kenneth D. McKellar, employed several secretaries during his thirty-six years as a member of the nation’s upper chamber. For sixteen years, Senator McKellar’s secretary was his youngest brother,...
