Frank P. Lashlee

Frank P. Lashlee (June 30, 1937 – June 18, 2008) was a Tennessee politician and a member of the Tennessee General Assembly. He was a Democrat.

Lashlee was born June 20, 1937, in Camden, Tennessee, to John W. and Mildred Jolly Lashlee,Jennifer Brooks, [http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080621/NEWS0201/806210352/1023/NEWS06 Former political power broker, lawmaker Frank Lashlee dies;His caucus helped propel Naifeh, McWherter] , The Tennessean, June 21, 2008] members of one of Tennessee's most politically prominent families. Both of his parents had been Tennessee State Senators, and his father, grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great uncle had served in the Tennessee House of Representatives and held various Benton County elective offices. His brother, John, was a prominent television sportscaster on WTVF Channel 5 in Nashville who served on the Nashville city council.

An insurance agent, Lashlee was first elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1972, where he served five terms. He moved to the upper house in 1982, being elected to the Tennessee Senate from the 25th District, and served there until 1990.

Among his political colleagues, Lashlee is most known for having created the most powerful political body in Tennessee history: the Rural West Tennessee Democratic Caucus, formed in 1973. The organization was made up of elected legislators of both houses that had any part of their district in rural West Tennessee. Their philosophy was to stay united in their legislative votes and iron out any differences prior to going to a floor vote and being out-voted by splintered Middle Tennessee Democrats and East Tennessee Republicans. The strategy of this organization was to first elect a rural West Tennessean as Speaker of the House by 1976. Once that was achieved, committee chairmanships could be handed over to fellow West Tennessee Democratic legislators who would then control the appointments to administrative offices (Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer, Attorney General, etc). The group achieved its first goal in 1973 with the Ned McWherter, a state representative from Dresden, Tennessee, to the position of speaker of the state house.

The political ramifications from those early successes are still being felt. The political body is credited as the driving force behind the elections of Governors Ray Blanton, Ned McWherter, and Phil Bredesen; US Senators Jim Sasser and Al Gore, Congressmen Ed Jones and John S. Tanner, Speakers of the Senate and House John S. Wilder, Ned McWherter, and Jimmy Naifeh, as well as State Treasurers, Comptrollers, Secretary of States, Attorney Generals, Department heads and all the main party leadership positions within the state legislature spanning the 30+ year reign of power. Though much of the state is slowly transitioning to GOP election successes, West Tennessee remains the last political stronghold of the democratic party due mainly from the influence of the Rural West Tennessee Democratic Caucus.

Lashlee's political career came to a close in 1990, mainly after facing voter resistance related to two situations of his own making. The first was his effort to rename the U.S. Highway 70 bridge over the Tennessee River connecting Benton and Humphreys counties in honor of his parents, replacing the traditional name "Hickman-Lockhart Bridge" which honored the member of the first soldier from each county to be killed in action in World War I. Members of the Hickman and Lockhart families and their relatives and supporters were disappointed in Lashlee's decision, and the action was soon rescinded by Lashlee himself, hoping to "right a wrong" in the peoples mind. Lashlee's public image was tarnished and politically he never recovered from the mis-understanding, mainly created by his political opponents seeking to capitalize on the negativity the issue raised.

Lashlee's stance was that he was in his last term in office and desired not to seek re-election until coaxed to stay in by his supporters. However, the history not known surrounding his move to rename the bridge was never disclosed by the media. Lashlee's grandfather, Orlander P. Lashlee as a county magistrate/judge and President of Tennessee's most politically powerful West Tennessee voter group; the Tennessee Farmers Institute was an original supporter of the first "Memphis to Bristol Highway" in the early part of the 1900s(later to become Highway 70). Judge Lashlee also served as an advisor to the highway's route development, especially through West Tennessee. O.P. Lashlee was able to have the proposed highway route re-drawn to go through Benton, Carroll and Humphreys Counties, where he owned extensive land holdings, by donating the land as a way to provide commerce to the counties his family resided in. Additionally, Lashlee owned and operated the ferry crossing where the future Hickman-Lockhart Bridge would be built and charged "break-even" prices to promote automobile traffic and thereby create commerce for Benton and Humphreys Counties. As a result of such highway route design, counties from Madison to Dickson to Davidson Counties would end up benefiting, but none more than Benton and Humphreys where the eventual (Hickman-Lockhart) bridge would be built.

Over those years (1910-1935), the development of the Memphis to Bristol Highway brought on federal funding and the creation of US Highway 70 over the same route. This added traffic rendered the ferry obsolete and then Rep. John W. Lashlee (Frank Lashlee's father) sponsored the referendum to build the original bridge to be named "Hickman-Lockhart Bridge", completed in 1935. The Lashlee Family had owned the land where the original bridge and ferry were established until having to relinquish thousands of acres of property on the banks of the Tennessee River to TVA upon President FD Roosevelt's creation of the New Deal legislation. Later, Rep. & later Senator Frank Lashlee sponsored legislation to have the older bridge replaced, fighting off political maneuvering by then Republican Governor Lamar Alexander to stall funds to build the new bridge. Lashlee finally gained the clout needed to have the newer version bridges that currently stand today by passing legislation that would build new bridges across every existing highway crossing over the Tennessee River between West & Middle Tennessee affecting Henry, Benton, Decatur, Hardin, Humphreys, Perry, Stewart and Wayne Counties that were completed in the mid-to-late 1980s.

Lashlee, in his last term as Senator, wanted to honor his parents and took the viewpoint that the "new" Tennessee River bridges were at a point of renaming, not understanding that traditions are hard to break! His mother was Tennessee's First Woman Elected to the Senate in Tennessee, a historical fact often ignored by Tennessee History Books. His father was the main force in getting the first (Hickman-Lockhart) bridge built and served both Benton and Humphreys Counties with distinction in the state legislature. It is ironic that the very bridge and land his family had owned since the creation of both counties in the early 1800s and handed over to the government for the benefit of both counties would serve to be his political downfall by 1990.

The second was the revelation by a Nashville television station in 1983 that, despite his official "Tennessee Blue Book" biography, based on material of his own submission, stating that he was a Bachelor's degree graduate of the University of Tennessee at Martin and a Master's degree graduate of Murray State University, despite the records of the respective schools indicating that he had attended only one academic quarter at UTM and only one semester at MSU. The bio also stated that his business was an "insurance and law office" despite the fact that Lashlee had never been admitted to the law of any state and therefore could not legally practice law. Lashlee was able to provide documentation that he did hold a degree in law (obtained from correspondence), but did not practice law as an occupation (later Lashlee earned a law degree from The Nashville School of Law). He also proved that his Camden, TN office had two practicing lawyers operating out of it and it was Republican Party politics in an upcoming election year that created the uproar in the first place and never was "the other side of the story" ever told. While this was corrected in the next issue of the "Blue Book", the damage was done in the public's eye, however Lashlee would go on to win his next election by record margins.

In 1990 Lashlee was defeated by former Senator and Hickman County educator, Kenneth N. "Pete" Springer, who was originally unseated by Lashlee in 1982 for the Democratic nomination to the 25th Senatorial seat.

Lashlee was appointed by Governor Ned McWherter to the Dept. of Labor and he retired from state service in 1994 and currently is a commercial real-estate broker in Williamson County, Tennessee. Lashlee's most notable legislation was that he sponsored the Vocational & Secondary Education Schools Act (building vocational schools in every county of Tennessee); the first Capital Punishment legislation making the death penalty constitutional in Tennessee that stood up to supreme court review; the RICO Act; the Moment of Silent Meditation Act for public schools; State Employee Longevity Pay Act; military veteran homes, free military license plates and veteran cemetery creation acts as well as numerous educational related legislative acts regarding vocational and secondary schools that are still in effect today.

Lashlee died of heart failure on June 18, 2008 at his home in Brentwood, Tennessee. He was survived by his wife, Sandra McMinn Lashlee of Brentwood, son Frank P. Lashlee, Jr of Manchester TN, Brett W Lashlee of Camden, TN and Bryan B Lashlee of Mt Juliet, TN., and daughters Bridgette Lashlee of Kenai, AK and Patricia Lashlee Vick of Camden, TN, 15 grandchildren and 1 great-grandchild. He is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Nashville.

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