Frank G. Clement

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.

The family moved around for several years, living briefly in Vermont and Kentucky, before returning to Dickson in the 1930s.

Inaugurated for the first time at age 32, he was the state's youngest and longest-serving governor in the 20th century.

Clement owed much of his rapid political rise to his ability to deliver rousing, mesmerizing speeches.

Clement graduated from Dickson County High School in 1937.

While still young, he took speaking lessons with his aunt.

Clement attended Cumberland University from 1937 to 1939, where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.

He then attended Vanderbilt University Law School, graduating with an LL.B in 1942.

He worked as an agent for the FBI for about a year, mainly investigating internal security and espionage cases.

In November 1943, at the height of World War II, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, eventually rising to the rank of first lieutenant and commanding officer of Company C of the Military Police Battalion at Camp Bullis in Texas.

After leaving the Army, Clement worked as counsel for the Tennessee Railroad and Public Utilities Commission from 1946 to 1950.

He was an alternate delegate to the 1948 Democratic National Convention.

During this same period, he was elected State Commander of Tennessee's American Legion, a position through which he developed relationships with veterans in all of Tennessee's counties.

In the early 1950s, he practiced law with his father in Dickson.

In the 1952 gubernatorial election, Clement challenged incumbent Gordon Browning for the Democratic Party's nomination.

Browning, nearly twice Clement's age, derided Clement as a "demagogue" and "pipsqueak."

Clement had the support of political boss E. H. Crump and Nashville Banner publisher James Stahlman, however, and travelled to all 95 of the state's counties, giving speeches in which he assailed Browning as "dishonest, indecent, and immoral."

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.

Clement was only 32 years old when he won the election and took office.

Upon inauguration, he became the youngest governor in the nation.

In 1953, a state constitutional convention proposed eight amendments to the state constitution, all of which were subsequently approved by voters.

The amendments included the extension of the gubernatorial term from two to four years, the repeal of the poll tax, and the authorization of consolidated city-county (or "metropolitan") governments.

While the new constitutional amendments prevented governors from seeking a second consecutive term, Clement was allowed to run for a full four-year term in 1954.

He was challenged in the primary by former Governor Browning, who accused Clement and his father of "peddling" state influence.

Several of Clement's close associates, among them his secretary of state, Eddie Friar, and comptroller, Jean Bodfish, turned against him.

Browning was unable to match Clement's oratorical skills and fundraising capabilities, however, and lost the nomination, 481,808 votes to 195,156.

Clement easily defeated fringe candidate John R. Neal and other token opposition in the general election.

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court declared state segregation laws unconstitutional in its landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

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.

He increased funding for education and mental health, and was the first Southern governor to veto a segregation bill.

In 1956, he dispatched the National Guard to disperse a crowd attempting to prevent integration at Clinton High School.

He attempted to enter national politics, and although his aggressive speeches at the 1956 Democratic national convention impressed some members of his own party, they disgusted many other politicians and brought an end to his federal political career.

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 a fourth term, for a fourth separate term and for a third separate four-year term.

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.

During his first term, Clement authorized a bond issue to provide free textbooks to children in grades 1 through 12, a first for the state (textbooks had previously been free through only the 3rd grade).

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).

Clement raised the state's sales tax from 2% to 3%, an unpopular move that would haunt him in later elections.