Farewell to McKellar

Voters in Tennessee's Democratic primaries last week upset two political apple carts. By a majority of nearly 80,000 votes, they ended the 36-year Senate career of Kenneth ("K.D.") McKellar, (TIME, Aug. 11). To replace McKellar, the senior member of the Senate, they nominated (and, in effect, elected) 44-year-old Representative Albert Gore. By a smaller margin incumbent Governor Gordon Browning lost his fight for renomination to handsome, 32-year-old Frank Clement, a silver-tongued former FBI man.

McKellar, who had the support of Memphis Boss Ed Crump, was defeated primarily by his age (83). Browning, one of Crump's bitterest enemies, was hurt partly by charges of graft leveled against his administration, but suffered too from the fact that he had personally cast the Tennessee delegation's vote against admitting Virginia delegates to the Democratic National Convention after the Virginians had refused to sign the party "loyalty oath."

McKellar's defeat clouded Boss Crump's attempt to re-establish statewide power for his machine. To make the most of his victory in the gubernatorial race, Crump went to fantastic lengths. Said he: "I predicted in 1948 that Gordon Browning would turn Tennessee's capital into another Sodom & Gomorrah. He was bogged down in his own corruption."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.