Famous Masons

American politician from Tennessee. He served in the United States House of Representatives for all but six years from 1921 to 1961. In 1920, Reece won the Republican nomination for Tennessee’s 1st Congressional District, based in the Tri-Cities region in the northeastern part of the state. The region had voted not to secede at the state convention in 1861. This region was heavily Republican?in fact, Republicans had represented this district for all but four years since 1859, and was one of the few regions in the former Confederacy where Republicans won on a regular basis. He won handily in November and was reelected four more times before being defeated for renomination in 1930 by Oscar Lovette. However, he defeated Lovette in 1932 and returned to Congress, serving until 1947, when he stepped down to devote his full energies to serving as chairman of the Republican National Committee, a position he had held since 1946. A member of the conservative “Old Guard” faction of the Republican Party, Reece was a strong supporter of Ohio Senator Robert A. Taft, the leader of the GOP’s conservative wing. In 1948 and 1952 Reece was a leading supporter of Taft’s candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination; however, Taft lost the nomination both times to moderate Republicans from New York.