Dayton E. Phillips

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Dayton E. Phillips was a American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives for the 1st congressional district of Tennessee. He was born on March 29, 1910 at Shell Creek, Tennessee in Carter County. He was raised on a farm, he attended the country school, and he went to Cloudland High School in Roan Mountain, Tennessee. From 1929 to 1931, he attended Milligan College in Tennessee. He attended the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1934. He taught school in Carter County, Tennessee in 1931 and 1932. He graduated from National University Law School in Washington, D.C. with a J.D. in 1936.

He was admitted to the bar in 1935 and commenced practice in Elizabethton, Tennessee. He was the attorney for Carter County from 1938 to 1942. He was district attorney general of the first judicial circuit of Tennessee from 1942 to 1947. During World War II, he served as an enlisted man in the United States Army, with overseas service in the European Theater of Operations, from 1943 to 1945.

He was elected as a Republican to the Eightieth and Eighty-first Congresses. He served from January 3, 1947 to January 3, 1951, but he was not a successful candidate for renomination in 1950. Dayton Phillips then resumed the practice of law. From 1952 until his death, he was the chancellor of the First Chancery Court of Tennessee. He died on October 23, 1980 in Kingsport, Tennessee. He had resided in Elizabethton, Tennessee. He was interred in Happy Valley Memorial Park.

This article incorporates facts obtained from the public domain Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.