Prentice Cooper
Cooper circa 1940
United States Ambassador to Peru
In office
July 1, 1946 – June 29, 1948
PresidentHarry S. Truman
Preceded byWilliam Pawley
Succeeded byHarold H. Tittmann, Jr.
39th Governor of Tennessee
In office
January 16, 1939 – January 16, 1945
Preceded byGordon Browning
Succeeded byJim Nance McCord
Member of the Tennessee Senate
from the 18th district
In office
1936–1939
Preceded byLeighton Ewell
Succeeded byLem Motlow
Personal details
Born
William Prentice Cooper Jr.

(1895-09-28)September 28, 1895
Bedford County, Tennessee, U.S.
DiedMay 18, 1969(1969-05-18) (aged 73)
Rochester, Minnesota, U.S.
Resting placeJenkins Chapel Cemetery, Shelbyville, Tennessee
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseHortense Powell (m. 1950)[1]
Children3, including Jim and John
Alma materPrinceton University (BA)
Harvard Law School (LLB)
ProfessionAttorney
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch/service United States Army
Years of service1917–1919
RankSecond Lieutenant
Unit307th Field Artillery
Battles/warsWorld War I

William Prentice Cooper Jr. (September 28, 1895 – May 18, 1969) was an American politician and diplomat who served as the 39th governor of Tennessee from 1939 to 1945. He led the state's mobilization efforts for World War II, when over 300,000 Tennesseans joined the armed forces, and numerous defense-related facilities were established across the state. He later served as United States Ambassador to Peru (1946–1948), and chaired Tennessee's 1953 constitutional convention.[2]

Early life

Cooper was born at the home of his maternal grandparents, River Side Farmhouse,[3] along the Duck River in Bedford County, Tennessee. He was the son of William Prentice Cooper, an attorney and businessman, and Argentine (Shofner) Cooper. He attended private schools in nearby Shelbyville, and graduated in 1913 from the Webb School in Bell Buckle, where he was president of the debate team.[2]

In 1914, Cooper enrolled in Vanderbilt University, where he was a member of Phi Delta Theta and vice president of the freshman class. After two years, he transferred to Princeton University, from which he graduated in 1917 with a Bachelor of Arts.[2] Following the U.S. entry into World War I, he enlisted in the Army, initially serving with the 307th Field Artillery before being transferred to Fort Monroe in Virginia. He was discharged in January 1919 with the rank of second lieutenant.[1]

Cooper enrolled in Harvard Law School in February 1919, and graduated with an LL.B in 1921.[2] He was admitted to the bar in 1922, and began practice in Shelbyville. That same year, he was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives, where he secured passage of the state's Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act.[2]

Cooper left the house after one term, and was elected district attorney of the state's Eighth Judicial District in 1925. He later served as a city attorney for Shelbyville.[1] In the 1930s, he helped organize the Duck River Electric Membership Corporation, an electric cooperative.[2]

Governor

Official portrait in the Tennessee State House

In 1936, Cooper was elected to the Tennessee Senate, representing Bedford, Coffee, and Moore counties.[1] In 1938, he ran for his party's nomination for governor with the support of Memphis political boss E. H. Crump. Crump was at the height of his power in state politics, and had had a falling out with the incumbent, Gordon Browning, over state appointments. He spent thousands of dollars on ads to boost Cooper's image and assail Browning, and Cooper won the nomination, 231,852 votes to 158,854.[4] In the general election, he defeated the Republican candidate, Howard Baker, Sr., 210,567 votes to 83,031.[5]

In the 1940 governor's race, Cooper defeated Knoxville inventor George Roby Dempster in the Democratic primary, and defeated C. Arthur Bruce by a more than 2-to-1 margin in the general election.[4] In the 1942 race, Judge J. Ridley Mitchell, who despised Crump, sought the party's nomination for governor, but was defeated by Cooper, 171,259 votes to 124,037.[4] Cooper easily defeated Republican candidate C.N. Frazier in the general election. Constitutional term limits prevented Cooper from seeking reelection in 1944.

Cooper was Tennessee's governor during World War II. In 1940, anticipating the U.S. entry into the war, he organized the Tennessee State Defense Council, which many other states would later imitate.[1] He also coordinated the establishment of draft boards, organized a state guard to replace the National Guard (which had been called up to active service), and established a model Home Food Supply Program.[2] Large defense-related facilities were built throughout the state, including Fort Campbell, most of which is in Tennessee despite its Kentucky address, a naval training base in Millington, and Sewart Air Force Base in Smyrna.[1] Defense-related plants, employing thousands of Tennesseans, were also built, among them a gunpowder plant at Millington, a shell-loading factory in Milan, and an aircraft factory in Nashville.[1]

In 1942, the federal government appropriated land in what is now Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for the top secret Manhattan Project which was developing the world's first atomic bomb. Cooper was not informed of the purpose of the project. When Anderson Countians complained to Cooper of land appropriations, Cooper accused the federal government of stealing the land for a "socialist" project. When officially notified in July 1943 by an Army lieutenant of the presidential proclamation making the area (which was in both Anderson and Roane counties) a military district not subject to state control he angrily ripped it to pieces. The new MED District Engineer Lt-Col. Kenneth Nichols had to placate him. [6] [7]

Along with defense mobilization, Cooper increased funding for state schools, and implemented a program that provided free textbooks for children in grades 1 through 3.[2] He also increased aid to the elderly, established a system of tuberculosis hospitals, and acquired land for state parks and state forests.[1] He cut the state payroll and placed taxes on alcohol, and managed to reduce the state debt by $21 million.[2]

In January 1941, a Cooper-supported bill calling for a repeal of the state's poll tax was introduced in the state legislature, but was defeated. In 1943, the repeal passed, but was thrown out by the Tennessee Supreme Court.[2]

Later life

Cooper was among 12 nominated at the 1944 Democratic National Convention to serve as Franklin D. Roosevelt's running mate in the presidential election that year, receiving 26 votes.[8] In 1946, Cooper was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Peru by President Truman. He convinced Peru to repay an outstanding loan to the United States, and had a reputation as a frugal entertainer.[2] An Argentine newspaper accused Cooper of inciting a rebellion by APRA members in Callao in October 1948 (the rebellion took place several months after Cooper had left office), but Cooper adamantly denied any involvement.[2]

Cooper was chairman of the limited state constitutional convention of 1953, which proposed eight amendments to the Tennessee State Constitution, all of which were subsequently adopted by voters. The most notable of these amendments included the repeal of the poll tax, and the extension of the gubernatorial term from two years to four years.[2]

Encouraged by pro-segregation interests, Cooper challenged freshman U.S. Senator Albert Gore, Sr., in the 1958 Democratic primary, but lost handily, with Gore taking about 60% of the vote. Cooper remained an active participant in Democratic Party events until his death from cancer on May 18, 1969, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.[1]

Family and legacy

Cooper's house located at Shelbyville, Tennessee.

Cooper married Hortense Hayes Powell (1919–2017) in 1950. They had three sons: William Prentice Cooper, III, Jim Cooper, John Cooper. Since Cooper was a bachelor during his tenure as governor, his mother served as the state's first lady.[1] Jim, is a former U.S. congressman, while John was mayor of Metro Nashville.[9]

Prentice Cooper State Forest, located west of Chattanooga, is named for Cooper. Most of the land for the forest was acquired during Cooper's tenure as governor.[10] Residence halls at Tennessee Tech and the University of Tennessee at Martin have also been named for Cooper.[11][12]

Cooper's house still stands in Shelbyville, and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Anne-Leslie Owens, "William Prentice Cooper, Jr.," Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2009. Retrieved: December 14, 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Governor Prentice Cooper Papers (finding aid) Archived July 12, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Tennessee State Library and Archives, April 2002. Retrieved: December 14, 2012.
  3. ↑ "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: River Side Farmhouse". National Park Service. United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved October 9, 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 Phillip Langsdon, Tennessee: A Political History (Franklin, Tenn.: Hillsboro Press, 2000), pp. 325-329, 325-335.
  5. ↑ Our Campaigns - TN Governor, 1938. Retrieved: December 15, 2012.
  6. ↑ "Oak Ridge, The Secret City," Tennessee4me.org. Retrieved: December 15, 2012.
  7. ↑ Nichols, Kenneth (1987). The Road to Trinity: A Personal Account of How America's Nuclear Policies Were Made. New York: William Morrow. ISBN 068806910X. pp99-100
  8. ↑ Catledge, Turner (July 22, 1944). "Truman Nominated for Vice Presidency". The New York Times. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
  9. ↑ "John Cooper sees bipartisan path to winning Nashville mayor's race".
  10. ↑ Prentice Cooper State Forest Archived January 8, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Tennessee Department of Agriculture. Retrieved: December 15, 2012.
  11. ↑ Cooper and Dunn Halls Archived January 12, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Tennessee Technological University website. Retrieved: December 15, 2012.
  12. ↑ Cooper Hall Archived January 29, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, University of Tennessee Martin website. Retrieved: December 15, 2012.
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