Percy Priest
|
|
Jospeh Percy Priest (April 1, 1900–October 12, 1956) was a U.S. political figure.
Priest was born in Maury County, Tennessee. He attended Columbia (Tennessee) Central High School, and afterward continued his education at State Teachers' College in Murfreesboro, Tennessee (now Middle Tennessee State University), and the former Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee. He taught school in Culleoka, in his native Maury County, from 1920 until 1926, when he joined the editorial staff of the Nashville Tennessean.
In 1940 Priest was encouraged to run for the United States House of Representatives. He won this election as an independent, defeating the incumbent one-term Democratic Representative Jo Byrns, Jr. and served in United States Congress from January 3, 1941 until his death. Upon swearing-in he immediately joined the Democratic caucus and remained a loyal Democrat. He served as the House majority whip between 1949 and 1953. At the time of his death he was serving as the chairman of the House Commerce Committee and had already secured the Democratic nomination for a ninth term, which had essentially assured him of reelection since no Republican has been elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Nashville since Reconstruction. Priest was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in Nashville. J. Percy Priest Dam, a United States Army Corps of Engineers hydroelectric and flood control structure just east of Nashville on the Stones River (and easily visible from Interstate 40) is named in his honor, as is Percy Priest Lake (created by the dam), and also an elementary school.
Some of the biographic detail in this article is derived from the public domain Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.