Jimmy Quillen

Jimmy Quillen
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 1st district
In office January 3, 1963 – January 3, 1997
Preceded by	Louise Goff Reece
Succeeded by	William L. Jenkins
Personal details
Born	(1916-01-11)January 11, 1916 Scott County, Virginia
Died	November 2, 2003(2003-11-02) (aged 87) Kingsport, Tennessee
Political party	Republican

James Henry Quillen, usually known as Jimmy Quillen (January 11, 1916 – November 2, 2003) was a Republican U.S. Representative from Tennessee from 1963 to 1997. Selective Service System and U.S. Navy official records both cite Quillen's date of birth as January 11, 1915.

Early life

Quillen was born in Scott County, Virginia, near the Tennessee line. He graduated from Dobyns-Bennett High School in Kingsport, Tennessee in 1934. He worked as a copy boy and advertising salesman for a newspaper in Kingsport.

In 1936, Quillen invested his personal savings to become a publisher of a weekly Johnson City newspaper and resided at the Montrose Court Apartments in Johnson City, Tennessee during this period of his life.

Draft exemption and military service

Prior to the U.S. entry into World War II, Quillen received a two-year Selective Service System Class 3-A draft deferment beginning in 1940. Quillen later served in the United States Navy as a public information officer from late 1942 to 1946, first receiving his overseas orders in 1944. Quillen was assigned aboard the Ticonderoga class aircraft carrier USS Antietam (CV-36) in late 1944 and the National Archives lists LT (j.g.) J.H. Quillen's service number as #235897 within the USS Antietam's roster of officers for July 1, 1945. The USS Antietam entered the pacific theater of operations too late in the war to participate in any combat actions, as the carrier steamed into Hawaii from the Panama Canal as the first atomic bomb was dropped by the United States on Japan.

Entry into state and party politics

Eventually becoming a Kingsport and Johnson City based real estate development and insurance company owner (starting Kingsport Development Company, Inc.), and bank executive following World War II, Quillen also was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1954 as a Republican, serving four terms in that body. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1956, 1964, and 1968. In 1972, a public interest task force led by Ralph Nader pointed a very public finger at Quillen, accusing the congressman of using his congressional office to "...promote his business interests, specifically insurance sales through Kingsport Development Co., Inc."

Elected into the U.S. Congress

In 1961, B. Carroll Reece, who had represented Tennessee's 1st congressional district for all but six of the last 40 years, died in office. His wife, Louise, took over as a caretaker until the next election. Quillen decided not to run for a fifth term in the state house in 1962, instead seeking the Republican nomination for the 1st District, which was based in the Tri-Cities region (of which Kingsport is one of the nuclei). This area of the state, like most of East Tennessee, has been heavily Republican since shortly before the Civil War — in fact, Republicans (and their antecedents) had held the seat for all but four years since 1859. Under the circumstances, Quillen's election in the fall was a foregone conclusion. He was reelected 16 more times without anything resembling serious opposition. He faced no major-party opposition in 1966 and 1980, and was unopposed in 1984 and 1990. He eventually became de facto leader of the Republican Party in East Tennessee and thus a power broker in Tennessee Republican politics.

Quillen's popularity was not due only to his district's heavy Republican tilt, but because of his reputation for strong constituent service. However, in his 34 years in Congress, Quillen sponsored only three pieces of original federal legislation (including Social Security "notch babies" benefit adjustment and an anti-flag desecration amendment to the Constitution).

Controversies

While serving as governor of Tennessee, fellow Republican Winfield Dunn incurred Quillen's wrath by opposing the establishment of a medical school at East Tennessee State University. Dunn claimed that Tennessee lacked the resources to adequately staff and fund two first-rate medical schools and that more resources should instead be devoted to the existing medical school in Memphis, which was approximately 500 miles from Quillen's district.

One reason for Quillen's wrath may have been that Dunn was from Memphis himself, and perhaps Quillen felt that Dunn was showing too much favoritism to his hometown. There has been considerable acrimony between East Tennessee and the state's other grand divisions dating back to settlement times. Whatever the case, Quillen never forgave Dunn, and it came back to haunt Dunn when he ran for governor again in 1986. Quillen made it known in East Tennessee Republican circles that Dunn was not to be supported. Dunn managed to overcome Quillen's opposition and won the nomination. However, without significant support in East Tennessee, Dunn stood almost no chance against the popular Democratic State House Speaker, Ned McWherter. Only a large turnout in his former Memphis base kept the margin of defeat to under nine points.

The ETSU medical school was subsequently built anyway as the ETSU Quillen-Dishner College of Medicine, "before a homosexual sex scandal linked to one of the school's early benefactors and teachers removed Dishner's name from institutional signage" , and is now officially known as the East Tennessee State University James H. Quillen College of Medicine.

Quillen's fellow Republicans passed him over in 1990 for consideration as ranking Republican on the House Rules Committee in favor of Gerald Solomon of New York, even though Quillen was the committee's most senior member. An unnamed fellow committee member was once quoted by the Kingsport Times-News (October 4, 1992) as saying, "Jimmy's one helluva nice guy, ... but let's face it. He couldn't organize a one-car funeral." He thus lost a chance to become the committee's chairman when the Republicans gained control of Congress after the 1994 elections.

Another important fact buttressing Quillen's re-election campaign finance efforts, according to Vin Weber of the Brookings Institution, was the Northeast Tennessee congressman's "...tremendous success...in shaking down the business community for [campaign] contributions."

Quillen amassed a large campaign treasury due to having received many large individual and PAC contributions, including those well financed PACs representing the beer, wine, and spirits beverage industries, but never really needed to use it given the heavy Republican tilt of his district. Many political observers expected Quillen to retire before a change in federal election campaign finance laws made it illegal to convert the balance of campaign treasury funds to personal use by merely declaring them as income and paying the federal income tax then due; he did not do so and continued to seek re-election past the deadline.

Retirement

Quillen did decide to retire prior to the 1996 election and was succeeded by Circuit Court Judge William L. Jenkins, a fellow Republican. He holds the record for the longest unbroken tenure in the U.S. House in Tennessee history. Only Reece had been elected to more terms in the House (18 to Quillen's 17), and only Kenneth McKellar had served in both chambers longer. Quillen died on November 2, 2003 and was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Kingsport. His funeral was one of the largest in the state's history, attended by dignitaries from both parties across the state.

Quillen's estate was valued at approximately $17 million, with the majority going to schools in his district. King College, Milligan College, Carson-Newman College, and Tusculum College each received $250,000 for scholarships. East Tennessee State University received an estimated $14.6 million for two scholarship endowments, including one for students of James H. Quillen College of Medicine.

External links

• ETSU Archives of Appalachia – James H. Quillen Congressional Office and Gallery
• On The Issues — James Quillen on Government Reform
• Quillen College of Medicine Developmental Photos