Joe C. Carr

Joseph Cordell Carr, Sr. (June 20, 1907 – October 12, 1981) was a Democratic Party politician in the state of Tennessee who served 20 years as Tennessee Secretary of State.

Biography

Early life Joseph Carr was born June 20, 1907, in Cookeville, Tennessee. His father, Sidney Forrest Carr, worked for nine years as a clerk in the Tennessee Secretary of State's office and was a one-term member of the Tennessee General Assembly, representing Putnam County from 1919 to 1921. He also was a campaign manager for U.S. Congressman Cordell Hull. serving on three occasions for a total of almost 27 years.

In 1948, incumbent governor Jim Nance McCord lost his bid for renomination to Gordon Browning, a former governor who campaigned for the Democratic nomination as an opponent of Crump. After Browning and his allies gained control of the Tennessee state government, Carr, who was allied with Crump, was replaced as Secretary of State in January 1949, when the General Assembly elected James Cummings to the office. He was buried at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Nashville.