Gordon Weaver BROWNING, Congress, TN (1889-1976)
BROWNING, Gordon Weaver, a Representative from Tennessee; born near Atwood, Carroll County, Tenn., November 22, 1889; attended the public schools; B.S., Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Ind., 1913; graduated from Cumberland University Law School in 1915; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Huntingdon, Tenn., in 1915; enlisted in the National Guard in June 1917, and commissioned a second lieutenant of the First Tennessee Field Artillery, afterwards the One Hundred and Fourteenth Field Artillery, Thirtieth Division; promoted to first lieutenant and to captain and served in France; was discharged from the service in 1919 and resumed the practice of law in Huntingdon, Tenn.; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1920 to the Sixty-seventh Congress; elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-eighth and to the five succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1923-January 3, 1935); was not a candidate for renomination in 1934, but was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination to the United States Senate; one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives in 1933 to conduct the impeachment proceedings against Harold Louderback, judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California; resumed the practice of law; Governor of Tennessee 1937-1939; unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1938; chancellor of the Eighth Tennessee Chancery Division 1942-1949; was appointed a captain in the United States Army on February 17, 1943; attended the School of Military Government at Charlottesville, Va.; advanced through the ranks to lieutenant colonel; acted as deputy head of the Belgium-Luxembourg missions until January 1946; with the military government in Germany for one year, serving as civil-affairs adviser on the supreme commanderâs staff; again Governor of Tennessee from January 1949 to January 1953; unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1952 and for nomination as governor in 1954; engaged in the practice of law and in the operation of a dairy farm; president of insurance firm before retirement; resided in Huntingdon, Tenn., where he died May 23, 1976; interment in Oak Hill Cemetery.
Bibliography
Majors, William R. The End of Arcadia: Gordon Browning and Tennessee Politics. Memphis, Tenn.: Memphis State University Press, 1982.Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
