View source for Estes Kefauver

{{Short description|American politician (1903–1963)}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2019}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Estes Kefauver
| image               = EstesKefauver (1) color corrected.jpg
| caption             = Kefauver in 1951
| jr/sr               = United States Senator
| state               = [[Tennessee]]
| term_start          = January 3, 1949
| term_end            = August 10, 1963
| predecessor         = [[Tom Stewart (politician)|Tom Stewart]]
| successor           = [[Herbert S. Walters]]
| state1              = [[Tennessee]]
| district1           = {{ushr|TN|3|3rd}}
| term_start1         = September 13, 1939
| term_end1           = January 3, 1949
| predecessor1        = [[Sam D. McReynolds]]
| successor1          = [[James B. Frazier Jr.]]
| birth_name          = Carey Estes Kefauver
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1903|7|26}}
| birth_place         = [[Madisonville, Tennessee]], U.S.
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1963|8|10|1903|7|26}}
| death_place         = [[Bethesda, Maryland]], U.S.
| party               = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
| spouse              = {{marriage|Nancy Patterson Pigott|August 8, 1935}}<ref name="Nancy"/>
| children            = 4
| education           = [[University of Tennessee]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br />[[Yale University]] ([[Bachelor of Laws|LLB]])
}}
'''Carey Estes Kefauver''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɛ|s|t|ᵻ|s|_|ˈ|k|iː|f|ɔː|v|ər}};<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=March 24, 1952 |title=National Affairs: The Rise of Senator Legend - TIME |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,816175-7,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100728234425/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,816175-7,00.html |archive-date=2010-07-28 |magazine=TIME}}</ref>
July 26, 1903 – August 10, 1963) was an American politician from [[Tennessee]]. A member of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]], he served in the [[U.S. House of Representatives]] from 1939 to 1949 and in the [[U.S. Senate]] from 1949 until his death in 1963. He was the winner of most of the [[1952 Democratic Party presidential primaries]], though he was not nominated at the [[1952 Democratic National Convention|convention]].

After leading a [[United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce|much-publicized investigation]] into [[organized crime]] in the early 1950s, he twice sought his party's nomination for [[President of the United States]]. In [[1956 United States presidential election|1956]], he was selected at the [[1956 Democratic National Convention|Democratic National Convention]] to be the running mate of presidential nominee [[Adlai Stevenson II|Adlai Stevenson]]. He continued to hold his U.S. Senate seat after the Stevenson–Kefauver ticket lost to the Eisenhower–Nixon ticket. Kefauver was named chair of the [[United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights|U.S. Senate Antitrust and Monopoly Subcommittee]] of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1957 and served as its chairman until his death.

==Early life==
[[File:Estes Kefauver Age 10.png|thumb|left|Estes Kefauver aged 10 in 1913 with two of his sisters]]

Carey Estes Kefauver was born in [[Madisonville, Tennessee]], the son of local hardware merchant Robert Cooke Kefauver and his wife Phredonia Bradford Estes.<ref name="Fontenay">{{Cite web |url=http://www.anb.org/search?q=Kefauver%2C+Estes+%281903-1963%29%2C+U.S.+senator |title=American National Biography: Kefauver, Estes (1903-1963), U.S. senator |author=Fontenay, Charles L. |date=1999 |publisher=Oxford University Press |website=Anb.org |access-date=September 7, 2018 }}</ref> Kefauver was introduced to politics at an early age when his father served as mayor of their hometown.<ref name="RCKobit">{{Cite news |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=February 20, 1958 |title=Robert C. Kefauver, Father of Senator |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/02/20/issue.html?action=click&contentCollection=Archives&module=ArticleEndCTA&region=ArchiveBody&pgtype=article |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |page=25 |access-date=September 7, 2018 |via=TimesMachine}}</ref> The elder Kefauver would later be an active and enthusiastic helper in his son's campaigns until his death in 1958 at the age of 87.<ref name="RCKobit"/>

Kefauver attended the [[University of Tennessee]] and received his [[Bachelor of Arts]] degree in 1924.<ref name="Fontenay"/> He was a tackle and guard on [[Tennessee Volunteers football|his college football team]]. He taught mathematics and coached football at a [[Hot Springs, Arkansas]], high school for a year before going on to [[Yale Law School]], from which he earned an [[Bachelor of Laws|LL.B.]] ''cum laude'' in 1927.<ref name="Fontenay"/>

Kefauver practiced law in [[Chattanooga, Tennessee|Chattanooga]] for the next twelve years, beginning with the firm of Cooke, Swaney & Cooke, and eventually becoming a partner in Sizer, Chambliss & Kefauver.<ref name="Fontenay"/>

In 1935, he married Nancy Pigott (born January 21, 1911, in [[Helensburgh]], [[Dumbartonshire]], UK), the daughter of British-American engineer [[Stephen J. Pigott|Sir Stephen Pigott]], whom he had met during her visit to relatives in Chattanooga.<ref name="Nancy">{{Cite news |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=November 21, 1967 |title=Nancy Kefauver Dies in Capital |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/11/21/96244711.html?action=click&contentCollection=Archives&module=ArticleEndCTA&region=ArchiveBody&pgtype=article&pageNumber=46 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=45 |access-date=September 7, 2018 |via=TimesMachine}}</ref> A graduate of the [[Glasgow School of Art]] with a budding career as an artist, she changed focus after her marriage and worked diligently and effectively for her husband's campaigns.<ref name="Nancy"/> The couple raised four children, one of them adopted.<ref name="Nancy"/> Mrs. Kefauver died November 20, 1967.<ref name="Nancy"/>

Moved by his role as attorney for the ''Chattanooga News'', Kefauver became interested in local politics and sought election to the [[Tennessee Senate]] in 1938. He lost but in 1939 spent two months as Finance and Taxation Commissioner under the newly elected governor [[Prentice Cooper]]. When Congressman [[Sam D. McReynolds]] of [[Tennessee's 3rd congressional district]], which included Chattanooga, died in 1939, Kefauver was elected to succeed him in the House.

==Political career==
{{Modern liberalism US|politicians}}
===U.S. House of Representatives===
{{more citations needed section|date=October 2024}}
Kefauver was elected to five terms in the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] as a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]]. As a member of the House during President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s time in office, Kefauver distinguished himself from the other Democrats in Tennessee's congressional delegation, most of whom were [[American conservatism|conservatives]], by becoming a staunch supporter of the President's [[New Deal]] legislation. In particular, he backed the controversial [[Tennessee Valley Authority]] and was best known for his successful bid to rebuff the efforts of Tennessee Senator [[Kenneth McKellar (politician)|Kenneth McKellar]] to gain political control over the agency.

As a member of the House, "Kefauver began to manifest his concern over the growing concentration of economic power in the United States",<ref>Gorman, Joseph Bruce. ''Kefauver: A Political Biography''. NY: Oxford University Press, 1971.</ref> concentrating much of his legislative efforts on congressional reform and [[Competition law|anti-monopoly measures]]. Among the committees Kefauver chaired was the [[United States House Committee on Small Business|House Select Committee on Small Business]], which investigated economic concentration in the U.S. business world in 1946. That same year, Kefauver also introduced legislation to plug loopholes in the [[Clayton Antitrust Act]].

In a May 1948 article, which appeared in the ''[[American Economic Review]]'', Kefauver also proposed that more staff and money be allocated to the [[United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division|Antitrust Division]] of the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]], and to the [[Federal Trade Commission]]; that new legislation to make it easier to prosecute big corporations be enacted; and recommended the danger of monopolies should be publicized more.

The Kefauver investigation into television and [[juvenile delinquency]] in the mid-1950s led to an even more intensive investigation in the early 1960s. The new probe came about after people became increasingly concerned over juvenile violence, and the possibility of this behavior being related to violent television programs.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sterling |first1=Christopher Hastings |first2=John Michael |last2=Kittross |title=Stay Tuned: a Concise History of American Broadcasting|location=Belmont, Calif |publisher= Wadsworth |date= 1990 |type= Print}}</ref>

His [[progressivism|progressive]] stances on the issues put Kefauver in direct competition with [[E. H. Crump]], the former U.S. Congressman, mayor of [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]], and boss of the state's Democratic Party, when he chose to seek the Democratic nomination for the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]] in 1948. During the primary, Crump and his allies accused Kefauver of being a "[[Fellow traveller|fellow traveler]]" and of working for the "pinkos and communists" with the stealth of a [[raccoon]]. 
In a televised speech given in Memphis, in which he responded to such charges, Kefauver put on a [[coonskin cap]] and proudly proclaimed, "I may be a pet coon, but I'm not Boss Crump's pet coon."

To win election to the Senate, Kefauver defeated the incumbent [[Tom Stewart (politician)|Tom Stewart]] in the 1948 Democratic primary. Kefauver was backed by the influential editor [[Edward J. Meeman]] of the ''[[Memphis Press-Scimitar]]'', who had long fought the Crump machine for its corruption and stranglehold over Memphis politics.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=883|title=Edward John Meeman|encyclopedia=The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture|date=January 1, 2010|access-date=May 24, 2015}}</ref> After he went on to win both the primary and the election, he adopted the cap as his trademark and wore it in every successive campaign. He received the cap from journalist [[Drue Smith]].

Kefauver was unique in Tennessee politics in his outspoken liberal views, a stand which established a permanent bloc of opposition to him in the state. Kefauver's success—despite his liberal views—was predicated largely on his support by the ''[[The Tennessean|Nashville Tennessean]]'', a consistently liberal newspaper that served as a focus for anti-Crump sentiment in the state. His constituency included many prominent citizens, whose views were considerably less liberal than his, but who admired him for his integrity.

Despite opposition from the Crump machine, Kefauver won the Democratic nomination, which in those days was [[tantamount to election]] in Tennessee. His victory is widely seen as the beginning of the end for the Crump machine's influence in statewide politics.

Once in the Senate, Kefauver began to make a name for himself as a crusader for [[consumer protection]] laws and [[Competition law|antitrust]] legislation. On [[civil rights movement|civil rights]], he was ambivalent: he admitted later that he had difficulty adjusting to the idea of [[racial integration]], and in 1960 he held out to the last in favor of permitting cross-examination of black complainants in voting rights cases. Despite this fact, Kefauver supported the civil rights program generally, and consistently supported organized labor and other movements considered liberal in the South at that time.

===U.S. Senate===

====Overview====
After being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1948, Kefauver guided the [[Celler–Kefauver Act]] of 1950, which amended the Clayton Act by plugging loopholes that allowed a corporation to purchase a competing firm's assets, through the U.S. Senate. Between 1957 and 1963, his U.S. Senate Antitrust and Monopoly Subcommittee investigated concentration in the U.S. economy, industry by industry, and it issued a report exposing monopoly prices in the steel, automotive, bread and pharmaceutical industries. In May 1963, Kefauver's subcommittee concluded that within monopolized U.S. industries no real price competition existed anymore and also recommended that General Motors be broken up into competing firms.

Kefauver's Antitrust and Monopoly Subcommittee also held hearings on the pharmaceutical industry between 1959 and 1963 that led to enactment of his most famous legislative achievement, the [[Kefauver Harris Amendment|Kefauver-Harris Drug Act]] of 1962, after Kefauver expressed shock about the excess profits that U.S. drug companies were taking in at the expense of U.S. consumers. Some of what Kefauver's hearings on the U.S. pharmaceutical industry revealed includes the following:

"Witnesses told of conflicts of interest for the [[American Medical Association]] (whose [[Journal of the American Medical Association|journal]], for example, received millions of dollars in drug advertising and was, therefore, reluctant to challenge claims made by drug company ads)…The drug companies themselves were shown to be engaged in frenzied advertising campaigns designed to sell trade-name versions of drugs that could otherwise be prescribed under generic names at a fraction of the cost; this competition, in turn, had led to the marketing of new drugs that were no improvements on drugs already on the market, but nevertheless heralded as dramatic breakthroughs without proper concern for either effectiveness or safety."<ref name="Gorman">Gorman.</ref>

At that time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had limited authority to require efficacy standards or disclose risks. Kefauver was accused of expanding the power of government excessively, interfering with the freedom of doctors and patients, and threatening the viability of the pharmaceutical industry. His legislation seemed likely to fail. However, at the end of 1961, European and Australian doctors reported that an epidemic of children born with deformities of their arms and legs was caused by their use of [[thalidomide]], which was heavily marketed to pregnant women.<ref>[[Jerry Avorn|Avorn, Jerry]] (December 8, 2011). [http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1110327 "Learning about the safety of drugs – a half-century of evolution"]. ''[[The New England Journal of Medicine]]'', '''365''' (23): 2151.</ref>

These positions made him even more unpopular with his state party's machine than ever before, especially after fellow Tennessee senator [[Albert Gore Sr.]], [[Party leaders of the United States Senate|Senate Majority Leader]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] of [[Texas]], and he became one of the only three Southern senators to not sign the so-called [[Southern Manifesto]] in 1956. He was named in a popular account of the Senate as a Southern Senator who had been excluded from the [[Southern Caucus]] due to his opposition to the [[filibuster]] and less than impeccable defense of [[States rights]].<ref name=citadel78>{{Cite book |last=White |first=William|author-link=William S. White|title=Citadel: The Story of the United States Senate|title-link=Citadel: The Story of the United States Senate|page=78|publisher=|year=|isbn=|location=|chapter=VI. Old Southern Home}}</ref>

In fact, these unpopular positions, combined with his reputation as a maverick with a penchant for sanctimony, earned him so much enmity even from other senators that one Democratic insider felt compelled to dub him "the most hated man in Congress".

Kefauver also led hearings that targeted indecent publications and pornography. Among his targets were [[pin-up]]s, including [[Bettie Page]], and the magazines that featured them.<ref>{{cite news|author-link=Robert D. McFadden|last=McFadden |first=Robert D.|date=December 11, 2008|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/arts/12page.html |title=Bettie Page, Queen of Pinups, Dies at 85 |work=The New York Times}}</ref>

====Kefauver committee====
In 1950, Kefauver headed a U.S. Senate committee investigating [[organized crime]]. The committee, officially known as the [[United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce|Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce]], was popularly known as the Kefauver committee or the Kefauver hearings. The committee held hearings in fourteen cities and heard testimony from over 600 witnesses. Many of the witnesses were high-profile crime bosses, including such well-known names as [[Willie Moretti]], [[Joe Adonis]], and [[Frank Costello]], the last making himself famous by refusing to allow his face to be filmed during his questioning and then staging a much-publicized walkout. A number of politicians also appeared before the committee and saw their careers ruined. Among them were former Governor [[Harold G. Hoffman]] of [[New Jersey]] and Mayor [[William O'Dwyer]] of New York City.

The committee's hearings, which were televised live, just as many Americans were first buying televisions, made Kefauver nationally famous and introduced many Americans to the concept of a criminal organization known as the [[American Mafia|Mafia]] for the first time.<ref>{{cite magazine | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,805815,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080105193456/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,805815,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=January 5, 2008 | title=It Pays To Organize | magazine=Time | date=March 12, 1951 | access-date=July 18, 2012}}</ref> In fact, in 1951, Kefauver appeared as a celebrity guest on the new game show ''[[What's My Line?]]'' discussing the hearings briefly with the panel, showing how popular these hearings were with early television viewers.

Although the hearings boosted Kefauver's political prospects, they helped to end the twelve-year Senate career of Democratic [[Party leaders of the United States Senate|Majority Leader]] [[Scott W. Lucas|Scott Lucas]]. In a tight 1950 reelection race against former Illinois Representative [[Everett Dirksen]], Lucas urged Kefauver to keep his investigation away from an emerging Chicago police scandal until after election day, but Kefauver refused. Election-eve publication of stolen secret committee documents hurt the Democratic Party in [[Cook County, Illinois|Cook County]], cost Lucas the election, and gave Dirksen national prominence as the man who defeated the Senate majority leader.

====1952 election====
[[Image:1952DemocraticPresidentialPrimaries.svg|thumb|upright=1.4|In the 1952 Democratic primaries, Kefauver won all but three contests, but failed to win nomination
{{legend|#c1c1c1|No primary}}
{{legend|#FFD700|Estes Kefauver}}
{{legend|#8F00FF|[[Hubert Humphrey]]}}
{{legend|#00FF00|[[Richard Russell Jr.]]}}
{{legend|#5d73e5|[[Averell Harriman]]}}]]
In the [[1952 United States presidential election|1952 presidential election]], Kefauver ran for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. In the opening [[New Hampshire primary]], he campaigned against incumbent president [[Harry S Truman]]. He wore his coonskin cap, sometimes going by dogsled through the snow.  Kefauver won in an electrifying victory. Truman then withdrew his bid for re-election.

Kefauver won 12 of the 15 [[1952 Democratic Party presidential primaries|primaries]] in 1952, losing two to "[[favorite son]]" candidates and [[1952 Florida Democratic presidential primary|Florida]] to leading [[Southern Democrat]] [[Richard Russell Jr.|Richard Russell]]. He received 3.1 million votes, while the eventual 1952 Democratic presidential nominee, [[Governor of Illinois|Illinois governor]] [[Adlai Stevenson II|Adlai Stevenson]], got only 78,000 votes. But primaries were not, at that time, the main method of delegate selection for the national convention. Kefauver entered the convention with a few hundred votes still needed for a majority of the delegates.

The Kefauver campaign became the classic example of how presidential primary victories do not automatically lead to the nomination itself.<ref name="Gorman"/> Although he began the balloting far ahead of the other declared candidates, Kefauver eventually lost the nomination to Stevenson, the choice of the Party leaders in key states. Stevenson, a one-term governor who was up for reelection in 1952, had resisted calls to enter the race, but he was nominated anyway by a "[[Draft (politics)|draft]] Stevenson" movement that had been energized by his eloquent keynote speech on the opening night of the convention.  Stevenson lost the general election in November to Republican  [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]  in a landslide.

====1956 election====
{{See also|1956 Democratic Party vice presidential candidate selection}}
[[Image:1956DemocraticPresidentialPrimaries.svg|thumb|upright=1.4|In 1956, Kefauver narrowly lost key primaries, and so again lost the nomination to Stevenson
{{legend|#c1c1c1|No primary}}
{{legend|#5D73E5|Adlai Stevenson}}
{{legend|#A59400|Estes Kefauver}}
{{legend|#73638C|Frank Lausche}}
{{legend|#668c63|John William McCormack}}
]][[Image:ElectoralCollege1956.svg|thumb|upright=1.4|The 1956 Stevenson/Kefauver ticket lost 41 states, including Kefauver's home state of Tennessee.]] In [[1956 United States presidential election|1956]], Kefauver again sought the Democratic presidential nomination. In the March 13 New Hampshire primary, he defeated Adlai Stevenson 21,701 to 3,806. A week later, Kefauver again defeated Stevenson in the [[1956 Minnesota Democratic Presidential Primary|Minnesota primary]], winning 245,885 votes compared to Stevenson's 186,723 votes. Kefauver was also victorious in the Wisconsin primary.

By April 1956, it appeared that Kefauver would match his spectacular performance in the primaries of four years earlier.<ref name="Gorman"/> But this time, Kefauver had active competition not only from Stevenson, but also from Governor [[William Averell Harriman|W. Averell Harriman]] of [[New York (state)|New York]], who was endorsed by former President Truman.

Stevenson got significantly more endorsements and raised far more funds than Kefauver. He defeated Kefauver in the Oregon, Florida, and California primaries and, overall, won more primary votes than Kefauver. After his devastating loss in the [[1956 California Democratic presidential primary|California primary]], Kefauver suspended his campaign. At the [[1956 Democratic National Convention|Democratic National Convention]], Stevenson was again nominated for president.

Stevenson then decided to let the delegates themselves pick his vice-presidential nominee, instead of making that choice himself. Although Stevenson preferred Senator [[John F. Kennedy]] of [[Massachusetts]] as his running mate,{{citation needed|date=July 2024}} he did not attempt to influence the balloting in any way, and Kefauver eventually received the nomination for vice president.

Stevenson lost the November election to Eisenhower by an even bigger margin than in 1952.

====Later career====
After the 1956 election, Kefauver was considered the front-runner for the [[1960 Democratic Party presidential primaries|1960 Democratic nomination]]. In an attempt to gain more public exposure, Kefauver proposed a federal ban on the sale or possession of [[switchblade]]s in 1957. He timed hearings on the legislation to coincide with a series of lurid articles in the ''[[Saturday Evening Post]]'' and other periodicals of the day on the use of switchblades by juvenile delinquents and gangs. At each hearing the senator would display a bizarre array of confiscated bayonets, trench knives, daggers, and switchblades, all of which he described to the press as "switchblade knives". However, Kefauver's switchblade bill failed, in large part due to residual bad feelings between Kefauver and other senators. In 1959, the senator let it be known that he was not going to campaign a third time for the presidential nomination. He continued to represent Tennessee in the U.S. Senate; the abandonment of presidential ambitions led to his most productive years as a senator. While he largely faded from the public eye, he earned the respect of congressional colleagues from both parties for his independence and his sponsorship of a number of important foreign and domestic legislative measures.

When he ran for reelection to a third term in 1960, his first and, it would turn out, last attempt at running for office after refusing to sign the 1956 [[Southern Manifesto]] and voting in favor of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1957|Civil Rights Acts of 1957]] and [[Civil Rights Act of 1960|1960]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/85-1957/s75|title=HR. 6127. Civil Rights Act of 1957.|work=GovTrack.us}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/86-1960/s284|title=HR. 8601. Passage of Amended Bill.}}</ref> he faced staunch opposition for renomination from his party's still-thriving pro-[[racial segregation|segregation]] wing. Nonetheless, he won the Democratic primary decisively, receiving nearly double the votes of his rival, judge Andrew T. Taylor of [[Jackson, Tennessee|Jackson]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Halberstam|first=David |date=August 5, 1960 |title=Kefauver Sweeps State |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/23474089/estes_kefauver/ |newspaper=[[The Nashville Tennessean]] |location=Nashville, Tennessee |page=1 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |access-date=September 5, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181029231529/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/23474089/estes_kefauver/ |archive-date=October 29, 2018 |url-status=live }} {{Open access}}</ref> Kefauver went on to defeat his Republican opponent in the general election, attorney Bradley Frazier of [[Camden, Tennessee|Camden]], by more than a 2-to-1 margin.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Anderson |first=Pat |date=November 9, 1960 |title=Kefauver Pulls Landslide Win |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/23474174/estes_kefauver/ |newspaper=The Nashville Tennessean |location=Nashville, Tennessee |page=6 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=September 5, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181029231905/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/23474174/estes_kefauver/ |archive-date=October 29, 2018 |url-status=live }} {{Open access}}</ref>
[[File:President Signing the 1962 Drug Amendments.jpg|thumb|After signing the [[Kefauver Harris Amendment|1962 Drug Control Act]] into law, President [[John F. Kennedy]] presents the pen to Senator Kefauver]]

Kefauver voted in favor of the [[Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution|24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/87-1962/s226|title=S.J. Res. 29. Approval of Resolution Banning the Poll Tax As Prerequisite for Voting in Federal Elections.|work=GovTrack.us}}</ref> In 1962, Kefauver, who had become known to the public at large as the chief enemy of crooked businessmen in the Senate, introduced legislation that would eventually pass into law as the [[Kefauver Harris Amendment|Kefauver-Harris Drug Control Act]]. The bill imposed controls on the pharmaceutical industry that required that drug companies disclose to doctors the side-effects of their products, allow their products to be sold as [[generic drug]]s after having held the [[patent]] on them for a certain period of time, and be able to prove on demand that their products were, in fact, effective and safe.

In signing the Kefauver-Harris Drug Control Act, President [[John F. Kennedy]] stated, "As I say, we want to pay particular appreciation to Senator Kefauver for the long hearings which he held which permitted us to have very effective legislation on hand when this matter became of such strong public interest."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=8939|title=442 - Remarks Upon Signing the Drug Reform Bill.|date=October 10, 1962|publisher=American Presidency Project|first=John F.|last=Kennedy|author-link=John F. Kennedy}}</ref>

== Death ==
On August 8, 1963, Kefauver suffered a heart attack on the floor of the Senate. Two days later he died in his sleep in [[Bethesda Naval Hospital]] of a ruptured [[aortic aneurysm]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=August 10, 1963 |title=Death Comes Unexpectedly to Sen. Estes Kefauver |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/23474240/estes_kefauver/ |newspaper=Lincoln Journal Star |location=Lincoln, Nebraska |agency=[[Associated Press|AP]] |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=September 5, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181029232147/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/23474240/estes_kefauver/ |archive-date=October 29, 2018 |url-status=live }} {{Open access}}</ref> After a wake in Washington, his body was taken to the First Baptist Church in Madisonville where thousands of mourners paid their respects.  He was interred in a family cemetery beside his home.<ref name="burial">{{Cite news |date=August 14, 1963 |title=Kefauver Buried Close to his Home |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/08/14/80469857.html?action=click&contentCollection=Archives&module=ArticleEndCTA&region=ArchiveBody&pgtype=article&pageNumber=33 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=33 |agency=AP |access-date=September 4, 2018 |via=TimesMachine}}</ref> 

There was some speculation that widow Nancy Kefauver might stand for election to her late husband's Senate seat in 1964, but she quashed such notions early on.<ref>{{Cite news |date=September 24, 1963 |title=Mrs. Kefauver Won't Seek Late Husband's Senate Seat |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/09/24/89549091.html?action=click&contentCollection=Archives&module=ArticleEndCTA&region=ArchiveBody&pgtype=article&pageNumber=22 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=22 |agency=UPI |access-date=September 4, 2018 |via=TimesMachine}}</ref>  Mrs. Kefauver never considered remarrying, remarking that she "had too perfect a marriage".<ref name="Hill">{{Cite news |last=Hill |first=Ray |date=November 5, 2017 |title=The Last Years of Nancy Kefauver |url=http://knoxfocus.com/2017/11/last-years-nancy-kefauver/ |newspaper=The Knoxville Focus |location=Knoxville, Tennessee |access-date=October 2, 2018 }}</ref>

The federal courthouse in [[Nashville, Tennessee]], was renamed the [[Estes Kefauver Federal Building and United States Courthouse]] in his honor.<ref>[http://www.fjc.gov/history/courthouses.nsf/getcourthouse?OpenAgent&chid=CD5D8581103B2EFD8525718B00733A9B Estes Kefauver Federal Building and United States Courthouse] from the [[Federal Judicial Center]] database of Historic Federal Courthouses.</ref> One of the libraries at the [[University of Tennessee]] was also named for him; his papers are held there.<ref name="Hill"/><ref>[https://libguides.utk.edu/mpa/kefauver Modern Political Archives (Special Collections): Estes Kefauver.] ''The University of Tennessee, Knoxville''. Retrieved July 7, 2020.</ref> The bridge over Pickwick Dam in Counce, Tennessee is named Estes Kefauver Bridge. One of the two city parks in Madisonville, Tennessee, is named Kefauver Park in his honor, as well the neighborhood Kefauver Hills.

==Electoral history==
'''1956 United States presidential election (vice president's seat)'''
{|
|-
|[[Richard Nixon]] (R) (inc.) 57.4%
|-
|Estes Kefauver (D) 42%
|-
|[[Thomas Werdel]] ([[T. Coleman Andrews|States' Rights Party]]) 0.2%
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
| colspan="9" | '''Estes Kefauver Tennessee campaigns'''
|-
! Year !! Office !! Winner !! Vote !! Runner-up !! Vote !! Third candidate !! Vote !! Source
|-
! 1960 !! U.S. Senate (TN) !! Estes Kefauver (D) !! 594,460 !! A. Bradley Frazier (R) !! 234,053 !! !! !! [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=62090]
|-
! 1954 !! U.S. Senate (TN) !! Estes Kefauver (D) !! 249,121 !! Tom Wall (R) !! 106,971 !! !! !! [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=89837]
|-
! 1948 !! U.S. Senate (TN) !! Estes Kefauver (D) !! 326,032 !! [[B. Carroll Reece]] (R) !! 166,947 !! John R. Neal Jr. (I) !! 6,103 !! [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=89838]
|-
! 1946 !! TN-03 !! Estes Kefauver (D) !! 26,779 !! George Bagwell (I) !! 2,725 !! !! !! [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=470001]
|-
! 1944 !! TN-03 !! Estes Kefauver (D) !! 32,497 !! Foster Johnson (R) !! 11,541 !! Ernest W. Forstner (I) !! 3,894 !! [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=470000]
|-
! 1942 !! TN-03 !! Estes Kefauver (D) !! 14,704 !! Walter Higgins (R) !! 3,831 !! Walter Harris (I) !! 902 !! [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=469999]
|-
! 1940 !! TN-03 !! Estes Kefauver (D) !! 35,332 !! Jerome Taylor (R) !! 16,099 !! !! !! [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=469998]
|-
! 1939 !! TN-03 !! Estes Kefauver (D) !! 14,268 !! Casto Dodson (R) !! 5,355 !! John R. Neal Jr. (I) !! 375 !! [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=385462]
|}

==See also==
*[[United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce]], also popularly known as the "Kefauver Committee"
*[[United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency]]
*[[Comics Code Authority]]
*[[List of members of the United States Congress who died in office (1950–1999)]]
*[[National Lampoon 1964 High School Yearbook Parody]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Anderson, Jack, and Fred Blumenthal. ''The Kefauver Story''  (Dial Press, 1956.), popular journalism

* Dunlap, William Kevin. "Estes Kefauver and Frank G. Clement: A power struggle for preeminence in Tennessee Democratic Politics" (2000). thesis with many county-level voting statistics [https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1377&context=utk_chanhonoproj  online]

*  Fontenoy,  Charles L.  ''Estes Kefauver, a Biography''  (Olympic, 1980. {{ISBN|978-0195014815}}) [https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=LJiKRwxxqAYC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=estes+kefauver+of+tennessee&ots=ZdRVOnUGwH&sig=RpjVKdsO_mKP8w2r7Dh7noB0lNI  online]; a standard scholarly biography  

* Gorman,  Joseph Bruce. '''Kefauver: A Political Biography'' (Oxford University Press, 1971.); a standard scholarly biography [https://archive.org/details/kefauverpolitica00jose/page/n6/mode/1up  online]

* Grant, Philip A. "Senator Estes Kefauver and the 1956 Minnesota Presidential Primary." ''Tennessee Historical Quarterly'' 42.4 (1983): 383-392. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/42626403 online]

*  McFadyen, Richard E. "Estes Kefauver and the Tradition of Southern Progressivism" ''Tennessee Historical Quarterly'' (1978) 37#3 pp.430-443 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/42625911 online]

*  Swados, Harvey. ''Standing up for the people; the life and work of Estes Kefauver''  (E.P. Dutton, 1972. {{ISBN|0525398724}}) [https://archive.org/details/standingupforpeo0000unse online]

* "Kefauver, Estes" in ''American National Biography''. American Council of Learned Societies, 2000.

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Estes Kefauver}}
* [https://libguides.utk.edu/mpa/kefauver UT Knoxville Libraries LibGuide on Estes Kefauver and his collections]
* [http://dlc.lib.utk.edu/spc/view?docId=ead/0012_000787_000000_0000/0012_000787_000000_0000.xml Estes Kefauver Papers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160810152834/http://dlc.lib.utk.edu/spc/view?docId=ead%2F0012_000787_000000_0000%2F0012_000787_000000_0000.xml |date=August 10, 2016 }}, University of Tennessee Knoxville Libraries
* [http://digital.lib.utk.edu/collections/kefauvercollection Estes Kefauver Image Collection], University of Tennessee Knoxville Libraries
* [http://digital.lib.utk.edu/collections/crimedocuments Crime Documents from the Estes Kefauver Collection], University of Tennessee Knoxville Libraries
* [http://www.onewal.com/maf-kef.html Kefauver Committee reports]
* [https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=733 Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture]
* {{Internet Archive film clip|id=gov.archives.arc.95733|description="Longines Chronoscope with Sen. Estes Kefauver (February 11, 1952)"}}
* Estes Kefauver's [[FBI]] files, hosted at the [[Internet Archive]]:
**[https://archive.org/details/foia_Kefauver_Estes-HQ-1 Part 1]
**[https://archive.org/details/foia_Kefauver_Estes-HQ-1A Part 1A]
**[https://archive.org/details/foia_Kefauver_Estes-HQ-2 Part 2]
**[https://archive.org/details/foia_Kefauver_Estes-HQ-3 Part 3]
**[https://archive.org/details/foia_Kefauver_Estes-HQ-4 Part 4]
**[https://archive.org/details/foia_Kefauver_Estes-HQ-5 Part 5]
**[https://archive.org/details/foia_Kefauver_Estes-HQ-6 Part 6]

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|us-hs}}
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{{s-ttl|title=Member of the [[List of United States Representatives from Tennessee|U.S. House of Representatives]]<br />from [[Tennessee's 3rd congressional district]]|years=1939–1949}}
{{s-aft|after=[[James B. Frazier Jr.]]}}
|-
{{s-ppo}}
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|-
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{{s-aft|after=[[Herbert S. Walters]]}}
|-
{{s-new|office}}
{{s-ttl|title=Chair of the [[United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce|Senate Interstate Commerce Crime Committee]]|years=1950–1951}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Herbert O'Conor]]}}
{{s-end}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kefauver, Estes}}
[[Category:1903 births]]
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[[Category:American anti-corruption activists]]
[[Category:Baptists from Tennessee]]
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[[Category:Candidates in the 1952 United States presidential election]]
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