This article's citation style may be unclear. The references used may be made clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking. (September 2009)

George Smathers
United States Senator from Florida
In office January 3, 1951 – January 3, 1969
Preceded by	Claude Pepper
Succeeded by	Edward J. Gurney
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 4th district
In office January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1951
Preceded by	Pat Cannon
Succeeded by	William C. Lantaff
Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Small Business
In office January 3, 1967 – January 3, 1969
Preceded by	John J. Sparkman
Succeeded by	Alan Bible
Personal details
Born	George Armistead Smathers (11-02-1913)February 1913, 11 Atlantic City, New Jersey
Died	January 20, 2007(2007-01-20) (aged 93) Indian Creek, Florida
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	(1) Rosemary Townley (div.) (2) Carolyn Hyder
Children	John Smathers Bruce Smathers
Alma mater	University of Florida
Profession	Lawyer
Military service
Service/branch	United States Marine Corps
Battles/wars	World War II

George Armistead Smathers (November 14, 1913 – January 20, 2007) was an American lawyer and politician who represented the state of Florida in the United States Senate for eighteen years, from 1951 until 1969, as a member of the Democratic Party.

Early life[link]

Smathers was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey (his uncle, William H. Smathers, was a U.S. senator representing New Jersey). His family moved to Miami, Florida in 1919, where he attended Miami High School. He then attended the University of Florida, where he earned his bachelor's degree and law degree. At Florida, he was president of his fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon (Florida Upsilon chapter), captain of the Gators basketball team, president of the student body, and a member of Florida Blue Key; he was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame.^[1][2] After completing his LL.B. in 1938, Smathers returned to Miami, where he served as Assistant United States Attorney from 1940 to 1942. During World War II, he served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps.

Smathers was a childhood friend of Philip Graham, a fellow Floridian. Graham would later become the publisher of The Washington Post.

Political career[link]

After the war, Smathers was elected to serve two terms in the United States House of Representatives, representing Florida's Fourth Congressional District from 1947 to 1951. He established a reputation for being a moderate who was resolutely anti-communist.

Election to Senate[link]

In 1950 President Harry Truman called Smathers into a meeting at the White House and reportedly said "I want you to do me a favor. I want you to beat that son-of-a-bitch Claude Pepper."^[3] Pepper had been part of an unsuccessful 1948 campaign to "dump Truman" as the Democratic presidential nominee, and George Smathers had been his manager and pupil.^{[citation needed]} Smathers challenged the incumbent U.S. Senator Claude Pepper in the Democratic primary, and won by a margin of over 60,000 votes. The race was marked by echoes of the Red Scare: Smathers repeatedly attacked Pepper for having Communist sympathies, pointing out his pro-civil rights platform and campaign for universal health care as well as his travels to the Soviet Union in 1945 where, after meeting Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, declared he was "a man Americans could trust."^[3]

However, the race is most famous for a speech Smathers never gave.^[4] A reporter made up a hoax that Smathers gave a speech to a rural audience using fancy words to create the implication that Pepper was sinister. Smathers reportedly had said, "Are you aware that Claude Pepper is known all over Washington as a shameless extrovert? Not only that, but this man is reliably reported to practice nepotism with his sister-in-law, and he has a sister who was once a thespian in wicked New York. Worst of all, it is an established fact that Mr. Pepper before his marriage habitually practiced celibacy,"^[5] While it is sometimes said that Time magazine reported these items, the magazine actually referred to the quote as a "yarn."^[6] The leading reporter who actually covered Smathers said he always gave the same hum-drum speech. No Florida newspapers covering the campaign ever reported such remarks contemporaneously. Smathers offered $10,000 to anyone who could prove he said it, and there were no takers before his death.^[3][7]

In the 1958 election year both Smathers and longtime Pittsburgh mayor and soon to be Pennsylvania governor David L. Lawrence were implicated but eventually exonerated of trying to influence the Federal Communications Commission's choice of a grantee for a television license for channel 4 in Pittsburgh.^[8]

Smathers served as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for six years. In the 1950s Senator Smathers appeared on the CBS Game Show What's My Line as a panelist.

Stand on civil rights[link]

Smathers generally opposed legislative efforts for civil rights. He denounced the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education rulings as a "clear abuse of judicial power." In 1956, Smathers signed the Southern Manifesto, together with eighteen of the other twenty-one U.S. Senators from the eleven states of the South, condemning the Supreme Court decision to desegregate the public school system. According to his obituary prepared by the Associated Press, Smathers once agreed to pay the bail of the jailed civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, but only if King agreed to leave Florida.

Smathers tried to water-down equal rights measures that President Dwight Eisenhower put through Congress, however, he ultimately supported final passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Smathers voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He also opposed Johnson's elevation of Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court.

In 1965, Senator Smathers was one of only four senators from the Southern Democratic caucus to support President Johnson's Voting Rights Act which outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African-Americans in the United States.^[9] The act banned literacy tests, named federal vote registrars and imposed federal penalties on anyone who interfered with voting in local, state or federal elections.

Relationship with JFK[link]

Smathers befriended John F. Kennedy and was a groomsman in his wedding, speaking on behalf of JFK at the wedding dinner rehearsal and reception.[3] During the 1960 presidential campaign, Smathers was a favorite son candidate for the Democratic nomination. He later managed John F. Kennedy's campaign in the Southeast.

Journalist Roger Mudd recalls being the network representative in the press pool boat that tried to follow the presidential yacht with Smathers aboard in the early 60s. "Smathers was probably John Kennedy's best friend in the U.S. Senate. Together or singly, they were wolves on the prowl, always able to find or attract gorgeous prey . . . . It was a joke, our pretending to be covering the president, bobbing around in the ocean, squinting through binoculars to find out who was coming and going but always having our view blocked by a Secret Service boat just as another long-legged Palm Beach beauty climbed aboard." ^[10]

It was leaked to the press that an emerging scandal involving the corrupt activities of Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson aide Bobby Baker, prompted President John F. Kennedy to privately offer Smathers the second spot on the 1964 presidential ticket and a plan to drop Johnson as his running mate.^{[citation needed]}

Retirement from politics[link]

In 1968, Smathers declined to run for re-election and retired from politics. He continued to keep his hand in the game, though, as a lobbyist.

Later life[link]

Soon after leaving the Senate, Smathers divorced his first wife, heiress Rosemary Townley Smathers. In addition to lobbying, Smathers became a successful businessman, involved in a wide variety of interests, including automobile dealerships and orange groves. He sold his house on Key Biscayne to JFK's old nemesis, Richard Nixon, when Nixon was looking for a residence in Florida.

The former Senator became a rich man as both a lobbyist and businessman. Smathers made substantial gifts to the University of Florida. In 1991, Smathers gave a $24 million gift to the University of Florida library system, now known as the George A. Smathers Libraries.

Smathers resided in exclusive Indian Creek Island off of Miami Beach and was father to two sons, John (b. 1941) and Bruce Smathers (b. 1943) (Florida Secretary of State 1975-78) from his marriage to Townley.

Smathers often attended "Church by the Sea", the United Church of Christ church in Bal Harbour, Florida where his funeral was held.^[11] Smathers' remains are located in Arlington National Cemetery.

Relations[link]

This article is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this article to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (October 2011)

• The current senior US Senator from Florida, Bill Nelson, was an intern during the summers of 1961 & 1962 in Smathers' Washington office.^[12]
• During his life, Smathers personally knew eleven United States Presidents, starting with FDR. He was a close friend of both John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.
• Smathers was reported to be the only non-Kennedy/Bouvier family member to have been in the highly publicized 1953 wedding in Newport (RI) and was co-bestman with Robert Kennedy.
• Smathers introduced close friend and Key Biscayne neighbor Charles Rebozo to Richard Nixon. Smathers had recommended Key Biscayne as a vacation destination to Nixon. While Nixon was vacationing in Key Biscayne, Smathers had Rebozo take Nixon deep sea fishing. Smathers later sold Nixon his Key Biscayne home which became famous as the Florida White House.

In popular culture[link]

• Smathers Beach, a popular Key West destination, is named after the senator.
• The handsome politician was known as "Gorgeous George" by his detractors.[4]
• Smathers appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and was frequently a guest on Larry King Live and other news programs.

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	College basketball portal
	United States Marine Corps portal
	World War II portal

• Florida Gators
• List of Levin College of Law graduates
• List of Sigma Alpha Epsilon members
• List of University of Florida alumni

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Crispell, Brian Lewis, Testing the Limits: George Armistead Smathers and Cold War America, University of Georgia Press, Athens, Georgia (1999). ISBN 0-8203-2109-6.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: George Smathers

• 1962 Democratic Fundraiser Footage; Kennedy commentary on Smathers
• Interviews with Smathers
• St. Petersburg Times Newspaper Article
• Washington Post, report of death
• UF Special Collections bio.
• A film clip "Longines Chronoscope with George A. Smathers" is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]

v t e United States Senators from Florida Class 1 Yulee Mallory, Sr. Welch Gilbert Jones Pasco Taliaferro N. Bryan Trammell Loftin Andrews Holland Chiles Mack Nelson Class 3 Westcott Morton Yulee Osborn Conover Call Mallory, Jr. W. Bryan Milton Fletcher Hill Pepper Smathers Gurney Stone Hawkins Graham Martinez LeMieux Rubio

v t e Chairmen of the United States Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Sparkman • Thye • Sparkman • Smathers • Bible • Nelson • Weicker • Bumpers • Bond • Kerry • Bond • Kerry • Snowe • Kerry • Landrieu

Claude Pepper
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 18th district
In office January 3, 1983 – May 30, 1989
Preceded by	None (new district)
Succeeded by	Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 14th district
In office January 3, 1973 – January 3, 1983
Preceded by	None (new district)
Succeeded by	Daniel A. Mica
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 11th district
In office January 3, 1967 – January 3, 1973
Preceded by	Edward J. Gurney
Succeeded by	Paul G. Rogers
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 3rd district
In office January 3, 1963 – January 3, 1967
Preceded by	Robert L. F. Sikes
Succeeded by	Charles E. Bennett
United States Senator from Florida
In office November 4, 1936 – January 3, 1951
Preceded by	William Luther Hill
Succeeded by	George Smathers
Personal details
Born	Claude Denson Pepper September 8, 1900 Dudleyville, Alabama, United States
Died	May 30, 1989 (aged 88) Washington, D.C., United States
Political party	Democratic
Alma mater	University of Alabama Harvard Law School
Religion	Baptist

Claude Denson Pepper (September 8, 1900 – May 30, 1989) was an American politician of the Democratic Party, and a spokesman for left-liberalism and the elderly. In foreign policy he shifted from pro-Soviet in the 1940s to anti-Communist in the 1950s. He represented Florida in the United States Senate from November 4, 1936, to January 3, 1951, and the Miami area in the United States House of Representatives from January 3, 1963 until his death on May 30, 1989.

In 2000, the United States Postal Service issued a 33¢ Distinguished Americans series postage stamp honoring Pepper.

Early life[link]

Born in Chambers County, Alabama, in a shack belonging to poverty-stricken sharecroppers, Pepper attended school in Camp Hill and became a schoolteacher in Dothan. He then worked in an Ensley steel mill before beginning studies at the University of Alabama. While in college he joined the Army for World War I and served in the Student Army Training Corps, with the war ending before he could see active service. After graduating in 1921 Pepper attended Harvard Law School, receiving his degree in 1924. He briefly taught law at the University of Arkansas and then moved to Perry, Florida, where he opened a law practice. He was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1929. After being defeated for reelection he moved his law practice to Tallahassee, the state capital.

U.S. Senate[link]

Pepper lost in the Democratic primary for the United States Senate in 1934, but won in a 1936 special election following the death of Senator Duncan Fletcher. In the Senate, Pepper became a leading New Dealer and close ally of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was unusually articulate and intellectual, and, collaborating with labor unions, he was often the leader of the liberal-left forces in the Senate. His reelection in a heavily fought primary in 1938 solidified his reputation as the most prominent liberal in Congress. He sponsored the Lend-Lease Act. Because of the power of the Conservative Coalition, he usually lost on domestic policy. He was, however, more successful in promoting an international foreign policy based on friendship with the Soviet Union. He gave lukewarm support to Harry S. Truman in 1948, saying the Democrats should nominate Dwight D. Eisenhower instead; but he did not support his friend Henry A. Wallace that year. He was re-elected in 1944, but lost his bid for a third full term in 1950 by a margin of over 60,000 votes. Ed Ball, a power in state politics who had broken with Pepper, financed his opponent, U.S. Representative George A. Smathers. A former supporter of Pepper, Smathers repeatedly attacked "Red Pepper" for having far-left sympathies, condemning both his support for universal health care and his alleged support for the Soviet Union. Pepper had traveled to the Soviet Union in 1945 and, after meeting Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, declared he was "a man Americans could trust."^[1]Because of his left-of-center sympathies and his bright red hair, he became widely nicknamed "Red Pepper".

At a speech made on November 11, 1946, before a pro-Soviet group known as Ambijan, which supported the creation of a Soviet Jewish republic in the far east of the USSR, Pepper told his listeners that "Probably nowhere in the world are minorities given more freedom, recognition and respect than in the Soviet Union [and] nowhere in the world is there so little friction, between minority and majority groups, or among minorities." Democracy was "growing" in that country, he added, and he asserted that the Soviets were making such contributions to democracy "that many who decry it might well imitate and emulate rather than despair."

Two years later, on November 21, 1948, speaking to the same group, he again lauded the Soviet Union, calling it a nation which has recognized the dignity of all people, a nation wherein discrimination against anybody on account of race is a crime, and which was in fundamental sympathy with the progress of mankind.^[2] After his defeat in 1950, Pepper returned to law practice in Miami and Washington, failing in a comeback bid to regain a Senate seat in the 1958 Democratic primary in which he challenged his former colleague, Spessard Holland.^[3] However, Pepper did carry eleven counties, including populous Dade County,^[4] where he later staged a remarkable comeback.

U.S. House[link]

In 1962 Pepper was elected to the United States House of Representatives from a newly created liberal district around Miami and Miami Beach established due to population growth in the area, becoming one of very few former United States Senators in modern times (the only other examples being James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr. and Alton Lennon) to be elected to the House after their Senate careers. He remained there until his death in 1989, rising to chair of the powerful Rules Committee in 1983. Despite a reputation as a leftist in his youth, Pepper turned staunchly anti-communist in the last third of his life, opposing Cuban leader Fidel Castro and supporting aid to the Nicaraguan Contra rebels.

In the early 1970s, Pepper chaired the Joint House-Senate Committee on Crime; then, in 1977, he became chair of the new House Select Committee on Aging, which became his base as he emerged as the nation's foremost spokesman for the elderly, especially regarding Social Security programs. He succeeded in strengthening the Medicare. In the 1980s he worked with Alan Greenspan in a major reform of the Social Security system that maintained its solvency by slowly raising the retirement age, thus cutting benefits for workers retiring in their mid-60s, and in 1986 he obtained the passage of a federal law that abolished most mandatory retirement ages. In his later years, Pepper (who customarily began each day by eating a bowl of tomato soup with crackers) sported a replaced hip and hearing aids in both ears, but continued to remain an important and often lionized figure in the House.

Pepper became known as the "grand old man of Florida politics". He was featured on the cover of Time Magazine in 1938 and 1983. Republicans often joked that he and Tip O'Neill were the only Democrats who really drove President Reagan crazy.

On May 26, 1989, Pepper was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George H. W. Bush and died in his sleep four days later.

When he died, his body lay in state for two days under the Rotunda of the United States Capitol; he was the 26th American so honored.

A number of places in Florida are named for Pepper, including the Claude Pepper Center^[5] at Florida State University (housing a think tank devoted to intercultural dialogue in conjunction with the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and an institute on aging)^[6]) and the Claude Pepper Federal Building in Miami, as well as several public schools. Large sections of US 27 in Florida are named Claude Pepper Memorial Highway. Since 2002, the Democratic Executive Committee (DEC) of Lake County has held an annual "Claude Pepper Dinner" to honor Pepper's tireless support for senior citizens.[2] He also has the Claude Pepper Building No. 31 [3] named for him at the National Institutes of Health, Located in Bethesda, Maryland. Pepper's wife Mildred was well known and respected for her humanitarian work as well. She was also honored with a number of places named in Florida.^{[citation needed]}