Jimmy Quillen

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Jimmy Quillen

James "Jimmy" Henry 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.

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 and later invested his personal savings to become a Johnson City newspaper publisher in 1936.

Prior to the U.S. entry into World War II, Quillen received a Selective Service System Class 3-A draft deferment in 1940. Quillen later served in the United States Navy 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.

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."

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 Northeast Tennessee-based 1st District. This area of the state, like most of East Tennessee, has been heavily Republican since shortly before the Civil War--in fact, Republicans had held the seat for all but four years since 1859.

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."^[1] 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.

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 felt that Dunn was showing too much favoritism to his hometown. 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 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" ("Quillen more powerful at home than in D.C." Kingsport Times-News, Sunday, October 4 1992. 8A), and is now officially known as the East Tennessee State University James H. Quillen College of Medicine.

Late during his congressional career, Quillen (eventually arising as the senior tenured House Rules committee member) was passed over in 1990 for consideration for the chairmanship of the House Rules Committee by both fellow Republicans and Democratic committee members. An unnamed fellow committee member was once quoted by the Kingsport Times-News (October 4, 1992) as stating about Quillen that "Jimmy's one helluva nice guy, ... but let's face it. He couldn't organize a one-car funeral."

During the 1992 federal elections, Quillen (who received a 1940-late 1942 draft deferment himself, before serving in the US Navy) took liberties with Democratic Presidential candidate Bill Clinton while giving stump speeches across the Tennessee 1st House District in which Quillen repeatedly referred to Clinton as a "draft-dodger".

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 during non-contested elections given the heavy Republican tilt of the Tennessee 1st U.S. House District and his enormous popularity among district republicans. 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.

Quillen did decide to retire prior to the 1996 election and was succeeded by Circuit Court Judge Bill Jenkins, a fellow Republican. While he had the longest unbroken tenure serving within the U.S. House of Representatives in Tennessee history, Quillen still only managed to introduce three legislative bills (i.e.: flag desecration; Social Security "notch baby" benefit readjustments, etc.) within the U.S. Congress as the original sponsor.

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.^[2]