Jim Nance McCord

Jim Nance McCord (March 17, 1879 – September 2, 1968) was an American journalist and politician who served as the 40th governor of Tennessee from 1945 to 1949, and was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1943 to 1945. He was also Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Conservation from 1953 to 1958, and was a delegate to the state constitutional convention of 1953. Prior to state and national service, McCord served as Mayor of Lewisburg, Tennessee, from 1916 to 1942, and was publisher and editor of the Marshall Gazette.

As governor, McCord greatly increased funding for education, instituted a state sales tax, and enacted right-to-work legislation.

Early life and career

McCord was born in Unionville in Bedford County, Tennessee, the second of seven children of Thomas McCord, a farmer, and Iva (Steele) McCord. He was educated in the public schools and by private instructors. In 1894, he moved to Shelbyville, where he worked as a clerk at a hardware store. Two years later, he and his half-brother, W.A. McCord, opened a bookstore in Lewisburg (in Marshall County). gaining invaluable insight into the needs of Middle Tennessee farmers. In 1910, he began a long newspaper career as editor and publisher of the Gazette after purchasing a stake in the paper from his father-in-law. Two years later, he bought out his father-in-law's remaining shares. With the support of powerful Memphis political boss, E. H. Crump, McCord won the primary by a lopsided margin over Nashville attorney Rex Manning and Knoxville law professor John R. Neal, and defeated the Republican candidate, Greeneville attorney John Wesley Kilgo, in the general election, 275,746 votes to 158,742. McCord dispatched the state guard to restore order.

During his second term, McCord enacted a 2% sales tax, which Crump had reluctantly agreed not to oppose. McCord also served in the cabinet of Governor Frank G. Clement as Commissioner of Conservation, from 1953 to 1958.

In 1958, at the age of 79, McCord ran for governor as an independent against the Democratic nominee, Buford Ellington, his former campaign manager and fellow Clement cabinet official. Tennessee State University, and the University of Tennessee at Martin, have been named in honor of McCord.