Jim Nance McCord

Jim Nance McCord (March 17, 1879ndash September 2, 1968) was Governor of Tennessee from 1945 to 1949.

A Tennessee native, he was the long-term editor of the "Marshall County Gazette" and served thirteen terms as the mayor of the Marshall County seat of Lewisburg. In 1942 he ran for the United States House of Representatives and won. Less of a supporter of E. H. Crump, the Memphis political boss, than his predecessor, Governor Prentice Cooper, McCord pushed through the legislature a politically unpopular sales tax (2%), giving the state government more financial resources than it had ever previously had access to. In the compromise that made this possible, the state property tax was removed, although local property taxes are still a major source of revenue for counties and cities in Tennessee. (Technically, the state property tax was not repealed, but rather the rate was set to zero. This means that theoretically it could be reimposed at any session of the legislature merely by an act setting the rate above this, but so far over a half century has passed, including numerous "revenue crises", without this idea rising above a barely-whispered concept by most legislators.)

McCord was also a supporter of right-to-work legislation allowed under the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. This put him at odds with many core Democratic constituencies, particularly organized labor, and was a factor helping to lead to his defeat by former governor Gordon Browning in the 1948 Democratic Primary. However, McCord's career as a public servant was not over. He was a delegate to the limited state constitutional convention of 1953, which submitted several important changes to the voters for approval, most notably extension of the gubernatorial term from two to four years. (Prior to this, the state constitution of 1870 had lasted eighty-three years without amendment, the longest such period for a written constitution anywhere in the world.) McCord also served in the cabinet of Governor Frank G. Clement as Commissioner of Conservation. Later, at the age of 79, he opposed Buford Ellington for election to the governorship again in the 1958 general, this time running as an Independent, but received 32% to Ellington's 58%. He died a decade later on September 2, 1968 in Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 89. At the time of his death, he was the 3rd oldest governor in Tennessee history, behind John I. Cox and Tom Rye, who both lived to 90. McCord is buried in Lone Oak Cemetery in Lewisburg, Tennessee.