John Duncan, Sr.

John James Duncan, Sr. (March 14, 1919 – June 21, 1988) was a Tennessee attorney and Republican politician who was elected to 12 terms in the United States House of Representatives.

Life and work

John James Duncan, Sr. was born in Scott County, Tennessee, one of ten children in his family. [http://books.google.com/books?id=KI0uAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA49 Congressman John Duncan] , in Tennessee Blue Book 1975-1978, page 48] He graduated from the University of Tennessee with a Bachelor of Science and served in World War II in the United States Army from 1942 to 1945. He received a law degree from Cumberland School of Law at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee in 1947, and became an assistant attorney general, a position he held until 1956. In that year he became a law director, serving in that capacity until 1959.

In 1959 Duncan was elected to a four-year term as mayor of Knoxville. In 1963 he was re-elected to a second term, making him the first mayor in Knoxville history to win re-election.

In 1964, he won a hard-fought Republican primary election in the Knoxville-based Second Congressional District. His popularity as mayor of Knoxville and the heavy Republican tilt of the district (Republicans have continuously represented this district since 1857) ensured that his victory in the general election was a foregone conclusion. Duncan resigned from the office of mayor of Knoxville in order to take office as a Congressman in 1965.

A popular conservative, he was reelected 11 times, seldom facing a well-organized or well-funded challenge, and winning re-election by some of the largest majorities in the U.S. He was a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Duncan was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1960, 1964, and 1980.

Duncan served in the House until his death in 1988. His son, Jimmy, succeeded him, having won the seat in the special election following his father's death.

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