Edwin C. Johnson

The Honorable Edwin C. Johnson
26th and 34th Governor of Colorado
In office January 11, 1955 – January 8, 1957
Lieutenant	Stephen L.R. McNichols
Preceded by	Daniel I.J. Thornton
Succeeded by	Stephen L.R. McNichols
In office January 10, 1933 – January 1, 1937
Lieutenant	Ray Herbert Talbot
Preceded by	William Herbert Adams
Succeeded by	Ray Herbert Talbot
United States Senator from Colorado
In office January 3, 1937 – January 3, 1955
Preceded by	Edward P. Costigan
Succeeded by	Gordon L. Allott
25th Lieutenant Governor of Colorado
In office 1931–1933
Governor	Billy Adams
Preceded by	George Milton Corlett
Succeeded by	Ray Herbert Talbot
Personal details
Born	January 1, 1884 Scandia, Republic County Kansas, USA
Died	May 30, 1970(1970-05-30) (aged 86) Denver, Colorado
Resting place	Fairmount Mausoleum of Fairmount Cemetery in Denver
Political party	Democratic
Profession	Railroad dispatcher; Baseball official
Religion	Lutheran
Signature

Edwin Carl Johnson (January 1, 1884 – May 30, 1970) was a Democrat who served as both governor and U.S. senator from the U.S. state of Colorado.

Background

Edwin Carl Johnson was born in Scandia in Republic County in northern Kansas. As a child, he moved with his family to Lincoln, Nebraska. Johnson attended Lincoln High School under the tutelage of William Jennings Bryan, who was serving as a substitute teacher. After graduation in 1903, Johnson pursued his dream of becoming a railroad man, and after numerous positions became a train dispatcher/telegrapher at Fairmont in Fillmore County in southeastern Nebraska. In 1909, Johnson contracted tuberculosis and was advised to relocate to Colorado, where the climate was believed helpful in his medical situation.

Career

Beginning in 1923, Johnson served in the Colorado House of Representatives for four terms. He was lieutenant governor from 1931 to 1933. He represented Colorado for three terms in the United States Senate from 1937 until 1955, during which time from 1937 to 1940 he was an intraparty critic of the New Deal policies of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.^[1] Johnson served as the 26th and 34th governor of Colorado from January 10, 1933 until January 1, 1937 and from January 12, 1955 until January 8, 1957.

He was perhaps best known for making a speech on the Senate floor criticizing the extramarital affair of actress Ingrid Bergman, who at the time was married to Petter Lindström. Bergman's affair with Italian director Roberto Rossellini became a cause celebre as a result of Johnson's speech, forcing her to relocate to Europe for several years until her return to Hollywood in the 1956 blockbuster film Anastasia. In 1972, Senator Charles H. Percy of Illinois entered an apology into the Congressional Record for the attack made on Bergman twenty-two years earlier.

Johnson was also the President of the Western League, a Class A baseball league, from 1947 to 1955. He was instrumental in the construction of Bears Stadium / Mile High Stadium, and was inducted in 1968 into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame. He died in Denver and is interred at the Fairmount Mausoleum at Fairmount Cemetery in Denver. The eastbound bore of the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnel is named for Johnson.

References

External links

• Governor Edwin Carl Johnson Collection at the Colorado State Archives
• "Colorado Governor Edwin Carl Johnson," National Association of Governors biography
• Edwin C. Johnson at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Edwin C. Johnson at Find a Grave
• Guide to the Johnson papers at the University of Denver Retrieved 2014-09-26.

Other sources

• McCarthy, William T. Horse Sense: The Divided Politics of Edwin C. Johnson, 1923 - 1954 (Greeley, Co.: University of Northern Colorado, Unpublished Masters Thesis, 1996)
• McCarty, Patrick Fargo Big Ed Johnson: A Political Portrait (Boulder, Co.: University of Colorado, Unpublished Master’s Thesis, 1958)

Governors of Colorado Territorial (1861–76) Gilpin Evans Cummings Hunt McCook Elbert McCook Routt State (since 1876) Routt Pitkin Grant Eaton A. Adams Cooper Routt Waite McIntire A. Adams Thomas Orman Peabody A. Adams McDonald Buchtel Shafroth E. Ammons Carlson Gunter Shoup Sweet Morley W. Adams E. Johnson Talbot T. Ammons Carr Vivian Knous W. Johnson Thornton E. Johnson McNichols Love Vanderhoof Lamm Romer Owens Ritter Hickenlooper

United States Senators from Colorado Class 2 Teller Chilcott Tabor Bowen Wolcott Patterson Guggenheim Shafroth Phipps Costigan Johnson Allott Haskell Armstrong Brown Allard Udall Gardner Class 3 Chaffee Hill Teller Hughes Thomas Nicholson Adams Means Waterman Walker Schuyler Adams Millikin Carroll Dominick Hart Wirth Campbell Salazar Bennet

Chairmen of the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Commerce and Manufactures (1816–1825) Hunter Sanford Dickerson Commerce (1825–1947) Lloyd Johnston Woodbury Forsyth King Silsbee Goldsborough Davis King Huntington Haywood Dix Hamlin Dodge Clay Chandler Conkling Gordon Ransom McMillan Frye Ransom Frye Nelson Clarke Fletcher Jones H. Johnson Stephens Copeland Bailey Interstate Commerce (1887–1947) Cullom Butler Cullom Elkins Clapp Newlands Smith Cummins Smith Watson Couzens Dill Wheeler Interstate and Foreign Commerce/Commerce (1947–1977) White E. Johnson Tobey Bricker Magnuson Commerce, Science, and Transportation (1977–) Magnuson Cannon Packwood Danforth Hollings Pressler McCain Hollings McCain Hollings McCain Stevens Inouye Rockefeller Thune