West Kentucky’s Favorite Son
Alben Barkley
Written by Justin D. Lamb
Above: Alben Barkley speaks at Benton City Park on Memorial Day 1955. Also pictured left to right are Benton Mayor Louis R. O’Daniel, Earl T. Osborne, Jane Hadley Barkley, Beulah O’Daniel, and Baptist Minister George Edward Clark.
“I am glad to sit on the back row. For I would rather be a servant in the House of the Lord than to sit in the seats of the mighty.” After speaking these words to a mock Democratic Convention at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia on April 30, 1956, former United States Vice President and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Alben W. Barkley of Kentucky stepped back from the podium as the crowd erupted in thunderous applause and anxiously waited for him to continue. Instead, Barkley fell dead of a massive heart attack. The distinguished Kentucky statesman was 78 years old.
Alben Barkley’s long career in politics has been well documented. Born Willie Alben Barkley on November 24, 1877 in the Wheel community in Graves County, Barkley entered politics in the early twentieth century when he became a law clerk for Congressman Charles K. Wheeler at his Paducah office and later at the law partnership of Circuit Judge William S. Bishop and John K. Hendrick. Shortly after arriving in Paducah, Barkley, who never liked his name, officially changed it to Alben William Barkley. “Just imagine the tribulations I had.” Barkley once commented “A robust, active boy going through a Kentucky childhood with the name of ‘Willie’ and later trying to get into politics!” After “reading law” for a few years, Barkley was admitted to the Bar in 1901 and later furthered his study by attending the University of Virginia School of Law in the summer of 1902.
Barkley first ran for public office when he became a candidate for County Attorney of McCracken County in the 1905 Democratic Primary. Barkley was joined in the race by the incumbent Eugene A. Graves and Paducah City Judge David Cross. During this campaign, Barkley made speeches all throughout the county on a one eyed horse named “Dick.” Barkley’s genuine friendliness resonated with voters and he won the election by carrying every precinct but the city limits of Paducah.
Barkley’s biggest test during his term as County Attorney came when two of the magistrates on the McCracken County Fiscal Court where charged with embezzling county funds. Despite Barkley’s friendship with the magistrates, he aggressively prosecuted them and gained a reputation as an honest and hard-working county official. Four years later, Barkley was elected County Judge of McCracken County.
It was when Barkley ran for Congress in the 1912 Democratic Primary that he first came acquainted with the people of Marshall County. Barkley hit the campaign trail hard as he advocated progressive causes such as lower taxes, increased regulations of the railroads, and federal funding for construction of highways which his three opponents in the race used to brand him as a “socialist.” Marshall County had long been a stronghold of the Democratic Party, but its electorate consisted primarily of conservative Democrats and Barkley was unsure if he could carry the county with his progressive message.
Barkley spent many hours in Marshall County making speeches advocating his progressive causes and in the process made lifelong friendships with several Marshall County officials such as Elbert Lawrence Cooper, H.H. Lovett, and Joe L. Price among others. When the votes were counted, the people of Marshall County overwhelmingly voted to send Barkley to Washington and he ultimately won the Democratic nomination for Congress and easily defeated his Republican opponent in the November General Election. This began Barkley’s successful career in Washington which included him becoming United States Senate Majority Leader and Vice President of the United States under President Truman. Throughout his career, Barkley made an effort to visit Marshall County on the eve of every election to give one of his famous “rebel rousing, Republican bashing” speeches on the balcony of the Marshall County Courthouse to encourage the voters of Marshall County to “bring home an old time Democratic majority.”
Barkley was a gifted speaker and loved telling stories of his native western Kentucky. On one occasion Barkley told President Franklin D. Roosevelt a story which made him laugh so hard Secret Service agents rushed in to check on the President’s safety. The story that Barkley was telling the President goes that on one particular Sunday in western Kentucky, a parishioner was so impressed with the preacher’s sermon that he got a little carried away in his praise. “That was a damn good sermon you preached today,” the parishioner said. “Well,” the preacher replied “I like your compliment but I don’t like your language.” “Yes,” the parishioner continued, “that was such a damn good sermon that I dropped $100 in the offering plate when it passed.” The preacher said, “The hell you did!”