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Senate Years of Service: 1911-1917 Party: Democrat
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LEA, Luke, (great-grandson of Luke Lea [1783-1851]),
a Senator from Tennessee; born in Nashville, Tenn., April 12, 1879; attended the
public schools; graduated from the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn., in 1899 and from the law
department of Columbia University, New York City, in 1903; admitted to the bar in 1903 and
commenced practice at Nashville; founder, editor and publisher of the Nashville Tennessean; elected
as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1911 and served from March 4, 1911, to March 3,
1917; unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1916; chairman, Committee on the Library
(Sixty-third Congress), Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses (Sixty-fourth
Congress); during the First World War, fought in Europe with an artillery unit and rose to the rank of
colonel; returned to Nashville and resumed newspaper interests; appointed to the United States
Senate in 1929 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Lawrence D. Tyson, but declined the
appointment; entered into the banking and real estate businesses; died in Nashville, Tenn., on
November 18, 1945; interment in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Nashville, Tenn.
BibliographyDictionary of American Biography;
Schlup, Leonard. Pugnacious Progressive: Senator Luke Lea As a Political Leader From Tennessee
in the Wilson Era. International Review of History and Political Science 21
(November 1984): 52-66; Tidwell, Mary Louise Lea. Luke Lea of Tennessee.
Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1993.
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