Senator Kenneth McKellar: Feudin’ Son of Tennessee

Kenneth McKellar may have been born in Reconstruction-era Alabama, but for most of his life, he was a Tennessean through and through. After graduating from the University of Alabama with bachelor’s, master’s, and law degrees, McKellar traveled to Memphis for what he expected to be a brief visit with his brothers. That visit was the genesis of a lifelong career and permanent home in West Tennessee. After successfully practicing law in Memphis, Kenneth McKellar kicked off his political career in the US House of Representatives in 1911, where he served until 1917 before becoming a US senator.

In his new biography of McKellar, Ray Hill traces the political career of Tennessee’s longest-serving senator and paints a colorful, nuanced portrait of the senator’s character and convictions. He chronicles McKellar’s decades-long political contributions to Tennessee and the United States as a whole, from the beginnings of the Boss Crump political machine to McKellar’s historic victory as the first popularly elected US senator from Tennessee in 1916. Hill offers a balanced account of McKellar’s forty-two years in office, exploring his early Democratic successes under Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt, his steadfast support for the Tennessee Valley Authority, and his fierce, unwavering commitment to Tennessee and its people.

As the only full-length biography of McKellar to date, Hill’s meticulously researched volume fills a significant gap in scholarship, shedding new light on the life and career of one of Tennessee’s most prominent political figures. Drawing on articles from more than one hundred US newspapers on McKellar’s life and politics, this biography will not only appeal to both scholars and students of US political science, but also offer a captivating story to all who love Tennessee and the state’s rich history.

RAY HILL has been the deputy clerk for Charlie Susano, Knox County Circuit, Civil Sessions, and Juvenile Courts, for the past twenty-two years. In 2011, he began writing a popular weekly column on history for the Knoxville Focus that has resulted in more than six hundred articles to date.