71 Facts About Earle Clements

Earle Chester Clements was an American farmer and politician.

Earle Clements represented the Commonwealth of Kentucky in both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate and was its 47th Governor, serving from 1947 to 1950.

Earle Clements's stand against Willis made him popular in the Democratic Party, and he went on to serve two terms in the US House of Representatives from 1944 to 1948.

In 1947, Earle Clements succeeded Willis as governor, defeating Harry Lee Waterfield, Chandler's preferred candidate, in the Democratic primary.

Earle Clements achieved advancements in education, including some progress toward desegregation.

Earle Clements resigned as governor to accept his Senate seat.

Earle Clements was defeated by Thruston Morton in his re-election bid in 1956; a lack of support from Chandler contributed to Clements' defeat.

At Johnson's insistence, Earle Clements resumed chairing the Senate Democratic Reelection Committee in 1957 and 1959.

Combs defeated Waterfield and rewarded Earle Clements by appointing him state highway commissioner.

When Combs canceled the deal Earle Clements took it as a public rebuke and soon after resigned to work on the presidential campaign of his friend, Lyndon Johnson.

Earle Clements died in his hometown of Morganfield, Kentucky, on March 12,1985.

Earle C Clements was born in Morganfield, Kentucky, on October 22,1896.

Earle Clements was the youngest of two sons and four daughters born to Aaron Waller and Sallie Anna Clements.

Earle Clements's father was a popular county judge and sheriff in Union County, but Clements at first shunned a political career.

Earle Clements obtained his early education in the public schools, and graduated from Morganfield High School in 1915.

Earle Clements was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.

Earle Clements was ordered to Camp Taylor near Louisville, Kentucky, where they were mustered into the infantry of the US Army.

Earle Clements first served as a guard at Camp Taylor and later entered the Officers Training School at Fort Benjamin Harrison near Indianapolis, Indiana.

Earle Clements graduated with the rank of first lieutenant and remained stateside as a professor of military science.

Earle Clements served for a total of 28 months, attaining the rank of captain, and was discharged on September 12,1919.

In 1922, Earle Clements' father died, and Earle Clements was appointed to serve out the remainder of his term.

Earle Clements was elected to the office; his term ended in 1925.

Earle Clements served two terms in that office, with his tenure ending January 1,1934.

In 1935, Thomas Rhea asked Earle Clements to serve as his campaign chairman for the 1935 gubernatorial race.

Chandler claimed that Earle Clements bolted the party and supported Republican candidate King Swope in the general election; Earle Clements denied this, but admitted that he gave Chandler's campaign only minimal support.

Earle Clements was elected to the Kentucky Senate in 1941, representing Union, Webster, and Henderson counties.

Earle Clements supported expansion of agricultural research and reorganization of the Farm Security Administration.

Earle Clements endorsed conservation and wildlife programs and additional funding to federal parks.

Earle Clements supported civil rights legislation, such as bans on lynching and poll taxes and he did not sign the 1956 Southern Manifesto despite school segregation being legally required in Kentucky prior to Brown v Board of Education.

Earle Clements opposed the Taft-Hartley Act and voted to disband the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Not known for his oratory or personality, Earle Clements was a masterful campaign organizer.

Earle Clements secured the support of western Kentucky Democrats by allying himself with Logan County political boss Emerson "Doc" Beauchamp.

Earle Clements chose Lexington Herald-Leader editor Tom Underwood as his campaign manager, strengthening his influence in central Kentucky.

Earle Clements befriended Lawrence Wetherby of Jefferson County which helped him with the urban vote and Carl D Perkins of Knott County which helped him in rural eastern Kentucky.

Second, Waterfield supported the development of electric power generation through public utilities, while Earle Clements favored private development.

The Earle Clements campaign attacked Waterfield for being deemed physically unfit for military service.

Earle Clements won the election by a vote of 387,795 to 287,756.

Earle Clements resigned his seat in the US House to accept the governorship.

Earle Clements reversed his campaign stance against a tax on parimutuel betting, reportedly proposing a three percent tax because he feared a higher rate would be proposed if he did not take the initiative.

Earle Clements was one of several people who have been referred to as the "father of Kentucky's state parks".

Besides improving the roadways themselves, Earle Clements replaced the Kentucky Highway Patrol, which had become a corrupt vehicle of political patronage, with the Kentucky State Police.

Earle Clements used some of the revenue generated from his tax increases to raise the salaries of the state's public school teachers.

Earle Clements worked to help these colleges maintain their accreditation and to secure re-accreditation for Morehead State Teachers College.

Earle Clements supported a 1948 bill that allowed blacks to pursue medical training at the University of Louisville.

Earle Clements curbed fraud in the insurance industry by reorganizing the state Insurance Commission and hiring a national prominent expert to rewrite the state's entire insurance code.

Earle Clements created the Kentucky Agriculture and Industrial Board, which attracted 250 new industries to the state and created 40,000 new jobs during its first three years.

Earle Clements created the Kentucky Building Commission to manage and plan all new state buildings.

In both the 1948 and 1950 legislative sessions, Earle Clements failed to convince the General Assembly to regulate strip mining.

Earle Clements failed in his attempts to establish statewide pension and civil service programs, and was unable to enact a merit system for state employees.

Barkley's term was to expire in 1951, and near the end of the term, Withers resigned, allowing Earle Clements to run in a special election to fill both the remainder of Withers' term and a full six-year term simultaneously.

Earle Clements won the election over Republican Charles I Dawson by a vote of 300,276 to 256,876.

Earle Clements advocated better cooperation between his committee and the Democratic National Committee in 1952.

Earle Clements instead advised that his committee's responsibilities be expanded and that its activities become year-round rather than seasonal.

In 1953, Clements was appointed Democratic party whip, serving under party leader Lyndon B Johnson.

Democrats regained control of the Senate in 1954, and Earle Clements instituted the practice of having his committee provide transition services for freshman senators.

Earle Clements remained active in state politics, leading a faction of the Democratic party that opposed Happy Chandler.

Earle Clements went on to win the general election and a second gubernatorial term.

Earle Clements began his campaign for re-election in 1956 by defeating Joe Bates, the candidate favored by Chandler, in the Democratic senatorial primary.

Journalist John Ed Pearce later recorded that Earle Clements had favored Chandler's choice, Joseph Leary, as a candidate rather than Wetherby.

Earle Clements didn't think Leary had a very good chance of winning, but he felt Leary's selection would keep Chandler from throwing his support to the Republican candidates.

Cooper defeated Wetherby by 65,000 votes, while Earle Clements lost to Morton by a margin of 7,000 votes out of more than 1 million that were cast in the election.

Earle Clements considered running for governor again in 1959, but ultimately decided against it.

Earle Clements united the faction behind Combs, making Wilson Wyatt their candidate for lieutenant governor and promising him support for later races.

Some state newspapers charged that Earle Clements had demanded this post at the head of the state's largest executive department in exchange for supporting Combs, a charge Combs denied.

Still others believed that, from his powerful post, Earle Clements would be the real governor and Combs only a puppet.

Earle Clements was offended by this action and considered it a public rebuke.

Earle Clements appeared on stage with Chandler at a rally where Chandler claimed that Combs had arranged the truck deal to discredit Earle Clements.

Earle Clements's strategy was unsuccessful; Breathitt carried the primary and went on to win the general election.

Earle Clements' waning influence was evidenced by the fact that Breathitt carried Union County by a vote of 2,528 to 1,913.

From 1961 to 1963, Earle Clements was a consultant for the American Merchant Marine Institute.

Earle Clements then returned to Washington as a lobbyist and as an executive with the Tobacco Institute.