Frank Goad Clement (June 2, 1920 – November 4, 1969) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 41st governor of Tennessee from 1953 to 1959 and from 1963 to 1967. Inaugurated for the first time at age 32, he was the state's youngest and longest-serving governor in the 20th century with 10 years of service, having been elected to the governorship in 1952 and re-elected in 1954 and again in 1962. Clement owed much of his rapid political rise to his ability to deliver rousing, mesmerizing speeches. His sermon-like keynote address at the 1956 Democratic National Convention has been described as both one of the best and one of the worst keynote addresses in the era of televised conventions.

As governor, Clement oversaw the state's economic transformation from a predominantly agricultural state to an industrial state. His final years, including his last term as governor, were marked by severe alcohol abuse which deeply affected his personal and professional life. His wife, tired of his alcoholism, filed for divorce in 1969. He died in a car accident soon after announcing his intention to run for another term.

Early life

Clement was born at the Hotel Halbrook in Dickson, Tennessee, the son of Robert Samuel Clement, a local attorney and politician, and Maybelle (Goad) Clement, who operated the hotel. The family moved around for several years, living briefly in Vermont and Kentucky, before returning to Dickson in the 1930s. Clement graduated from Dickson County High School in 1937. He then attended Vanderbilt University Law School, graduating with an LL.B in 1942. He defeated Browning for the nomination, 302,487 votes to 245,156, and routed the Republican candidate, Madisonville attorney Beecher Witt, in the general election. He also implemented the state's first long-range highway construction project, and established a mental health department (now the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services). He also threatened to veto any attempt to change the state's mandatory school attendance law, and rejected a request by the Parents School Preference Committee to use the National Guard to prevent integration (as Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had done). In September 1956, he stationed National Guard troops in Clinton, Tennessee, to protect the first black students to attend Clinton High School from anti-integration protesters. Clement's speech is often remembered for his repeated use of the phrase, "How long, America, O how long?" Future Georgia governor Zell Miller, who would later deliver speeches at the 1992 Democratic convention and the 2004 Republican convention, missed the birth of his son to see Clement's speech. New York Herald Tribune writer Red Smith likened the speech to "slaying the Republicans with the jawbone of an ass." Evangelist Billy Graham disapproved of the speech, and distanced himself from Clement afterward. Arthur Langlie, who was slated to deliver the keynote address at the Republican convention later that year, stated, "I'll be passing up the Chicago brand of prejudicial fire and brimstone."

Third term as Governor, 1963 to 1967

In 1962, Clement once again sought the party's nomination for governor. In the primary, he defeated Memphis attorney Bill Farris and Chattanooga mayor Rudy Olgiati, by 97,521 votes

Since the 1964 election was for the balance of Kefauver's unexpired term, the seat was to be contested again in 1966. In the primary, Clement defeated Bass for the nomination, by 18,243 votes. At the time of his death, he and his estranged wife were headed towards reconciliation. In 1970, the CMA honored Clement with the Connie B. Gay Award in recognition of his outstanding service to the association.

Clement was a 32nd degree Mason and a member of the Shriners. the University of Tennessee, Tennessee Tech, Tennessee State University, and the University of Tennessee at Martin, as well as a golf course at Montgomery Bell State Park and a bridge over Barren Fork in McMinnville.

See also

  • List of governors of Tennessee

Further reading

  • Dunlap, William Kevin. "Estes Kefauver and Frank G. Clement: A power struggle for preeminence in Tennessee Democratic Politics" (2000). thesis with many county-level voting statistics online
  • Greene, Lee Seifert. Lead Me On: Frank Goad Clement and Tennessee Politics. Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 2007. .

References

  • Frank Goad Clement – entry at the National Governors Association
  • Portrait painting of Governor Clement – Tennessee Portrait Project
  • Portrait photograph of Governor Clement – Tennessee State Library and Archives
  • Frank G. Clement – Getty Images
  • Governor Frank Goad Clement Papers, 1953-1959. GP 47. Tennessee State Library and Archives

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