Gordon Browning

Who was Gordon Browning?

Gordon Weaver Browning was an American politician who served as Governor of Tennessee from 1937 to 1939, and again from 1949 to 1953. He also served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, from 1923 to 1935, and was Chancellor of Tennessee's Eighth Chancery District in the 1940s. As governor, he stabilized state finances, doubled the state's mileage of paved roads, and enacted legislation to curb voter fraud. His victory in the hard-fought 1948 gubernatorial campaign helped break the power of Memphis political boss E. H. Crump.

In the years following World War II, Browning served in the Allied occupational government in Germany, and was a civil affairs advisor on the staff of General Dwight D. Eisenhower.