Kenneth Douglas McKELLAR, Congress, TN (1869-1957)

McKELLAR, Kenneth Douglas, a Representative and a Senator from Tennessee; born in Richmond, Dallas County, Ala., January 29, 1869; received private instruction from his parents and his sister; graduated from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa in 1891 and from its law department in 1892; moved to Tennessee in 1892 and settled in Memphis; admitted to the bar the same year and commenced the practice of law; presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1904; elected on November 7, 1911, as a Democrat to the Sixty-second Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of George W. Gordon; reelected to the Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth Congresses and served from December 4, 1911, to March 3, 1917; did not seek renomination, having become a candidate for Senator; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1916; reelected in 1922, 1928, 1934, 1940, and 1946 and served from March 4, 1917, to January 3, 1953; unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1952; served as President pro tempore of the Senate during the Seventy-ninth, Eighty-first and Eighty-second Congresses; chairman, Committee on Civil Service and Retrenchment (Sixty-fifth Congress), Committee on Post Office and Post Roads (Seventy-third through Seventy-ninth Congresses), Committee on Appropriations (Seventy-ninth through Eighty-second Congresses); retired; died in Memphis, Tenn., October 25, 1957; interment in Elmwood Cemetery.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; McKellar, Kenneth. Tennessee Senators As Seen By One of Their Successors. Kingsport, Tenn.: Southern Publishers,, 1942; Pope, Robert Dean. “Senatorial Baron: The Long Political Career of Kenneth C. McKellar.” Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1975.

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