John Netherland HEISKELL, Congress, AR (1872-1972)

HEISKELL, John Netherland, a Senator from Arkansas; born in Rogersville, Hawkins County, Tenn., on November 2, 1872; attended the public and private schools of Memphis; graduated from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1893; after leaving college engaged in newspaper work; became editor of the Arkansas Gazette and president of the Gazette Publishing Co. in Little Rock, Ark., in 1902; appointed as a Democrat to the United States Senate, January 6, 1913, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Jeff Davis and served from January 6 to January 29, 1913, when a successor was elected; was not a candidate for election in 1913; resumed his former newspaper career and took an active interest in the Arkansas Gazette, which won two Pulitzer prizes while under his editorship, until his death on December 28, 1972, at the age of one hundred, in Little Rock, Ark.; interment in Mount Holly Cemetery.

Bibliography

Thompson, John A. “An Ambition Achieved: J.N. Heiskell Becomes Editor of the Arkansas Gazette.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 46 (Summer 1987): 156-66.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present