Remembering John Wilder – Former Lieutenant Governor Dead at 88

Former state Senator and Tennessee Lieutenant Governor John S. Wilder died this past Friday morning at a Memphis hospital. He was 88 years old.

Wilder had spent 44 years in the state Senate, 36 of those as Lieutenant Governor. In Tennessee the Lt. Gov. is not independently elected by the populace, nor a running mate of the governor as some may expect; but instead the Senate Speaker, as elected by the members of the Senate, is also Lt. Gov.

John Wilder
(MARK HUMPHREY/The Associated Press)

Wilder was first elected in 1959. After serving one term, and being out of office, he was elected again to the Senate oin1966. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures he was the longest serving presiding officer of a legislative chamber in modern U.S. history.

Beyond being a legislator, Wilder was a practicing lawyer after having graduated the University of Tennessee's College of Agriculture and Memphis State University’s Law School. He was also a farmer, businessman, cotton ginner, and pilot.

A Democrat from Mason, Wilder was last elected to office in 2005. He lost his speakership/Lt. Governor position to Republican Ron Ramsey of Blountville, when recent elections increased the Republican Majority in the Senate and he was not able to get the support from across the isle he had received previously.

Then after being hospitalized with pneumonia in February 2008, Wilder said, in March on the Senate floor that he would not seek re-election, and called the Senate "more a part of me than anything else I've done." After 18th consecutive terms John Wilder’s Senate Career would be over; but his legacy last.

Memphis Democrat and chairman of the Tennessee Black Caucus, Rep. John Deberry, said of wilder "He was an innovator. To be speaker of such a politically divided organization as the Senate for as long as he was, is truly a remarkable feat.”

Former longtime Speaker of the House Jimmy Naifeh stated "when you look up the word 'statesman' in the dictionary, you're sure to find John Wilder's name”.

In being Speaker of the Senate, Wilder was charged with appointing committee chair positions. Chosing to often appoint Republicans to a solid minority of those positions allowed him to maintain the support that kept him in his position as speaker. At the same time, it also was a point of contention with fellow Democrats from time to time.

Notably, the Jackson Sun reports that “in the early 1960s, during racial unrest in his native Fayette County, Wilder refused to punish black tenants by evicting them or calling in crop loans.”
Read more: http://www.blogdoctor.me/2007/02/expandable-post-summaries.html#ixzz0fvTXmFSF