by Ray Hill | Aug 4, 2013 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Ray Hill Francis Biddle was attorney general of the United States under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He noted Tennessee’s Senator Kenneth D. McKellar could be “obstinate” and “vindictive,” but was careful to note McKellar was “shrewd.” Biddle also...
by Ray Hill | Jul 28, 2013 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Ray Hill Prentice Cooper was barred by state law from seeking yet another term as Tennessee’s governor in 1944; there was no Senate seat to contest and he was faced with the prospect of retiring from public office. Cooper clearly wanted to remain in public life and...
by Ray Hill | Jul 21, 2013 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
By Ray Hill Governor Prentice Cooper was seeking a third two-year term in 1942 and found himself hard pressed by his opponent, J. Ridley Mitchell. Mitchell was a wily politician and had served as the Congressman from Tennessee’s Fourth District from 1931-39, leaving...
by Ray Hill | Jul 14, 2013 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
By Ray Hill The administration of Governor Prentice Cooper, unlike that of his predecessor Gordon Browning, had been relatively quiet. Cooper and Browning were as different in temperament as they were in appearance. Gordon Browning was a big, bluff man with a shock of...
by Ray Hill | Jul 7, 2013 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
By Ray Hill By the fall of 1937, E. H. Crump, leader of the Shelby County political machine, was openly fighting Governor Gordon Browning. After having supported Browning for governor in 1936, Senator Kenneth D. McKellar’s prediction that Crump could not trust...
by Ray Hill | Jun 23, 2013 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
By Ray Hill A bare-knuckle political battle had rolled across Tennessee for the Democratic nomination fort the United States Senate in 1938. The contest was a three way fight between incumbent U. S. Senator George L. Berry, Congressman J. Ridley Mitchell, and A. T....
