at least to me it is........ This week on Real Time, Bill interviewed Ron Howard and Gore Vidal in 2 separate interviews. Both interviews were very interesting but I was especially interested in something Vidal said. He said his grandfather was an Oklahoma Senator and was also an atheist at the time.
I have never heard about this before. After doing some reading about him, I
discovered that he was Oklahoma's first democratic Senator and he was also
blind!
His grandfather's name was Thomas Pryor Gore and there is also a town of Gore,
Oklahoma which was named after him. There is also another town of Pryor,
Oklahoma and I wonder if that one was named after him too! I'll have to do
some more reading and see if I can find a connection.
Anyway, this is the info I've found already........
Thomas Gore
Thomas Pryor Gore
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
United States Senator
from Oklahoma
In office
December 11, 1907 - March 3, 1921
Preceded by None
One of two first Oklahoma's senators due to Statehood
Succeeded by John W. Harreld
In office
March 4, 1931 - January 3, 1937
Preceded by William B. Pine
Succeeded by Joshua B. Lee
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Born December 10, 1870 (1870-12-10)
Webster County, Mississippi
Died March 16, 1949 (1949-03-17) (aged 78)
Washington, D.C.
Nationality American
Political party Democratic
Spouse Nina Belle Kay
Thomas Pryor Gore (born Governor Thomas Pryor Gore on December 10, 1870 - March
16, 1949) was a Democratic politician. Born in Webster County, Mississippi, he
moved to Oklahoma in 1901 and was a United States Senator from Oklahoma from
1907 until 1921 and from 1931 until 1937. He is notable for being totally blind
as well as for being the maternal grandfather of author Gore Vidal. Although
said to be distantly related to Albert Gore, Sr. and former vice-president Al
Gore there is no proven connection; Al Gore descends from a John Gore who was
in Virginia by 1653 while Thomas P. Gore descends from a James Gore who was
born in England or Wales in 1662.
He became blind as a child through two separate accidents but did not give up
his dream of becoming a senator. In 1907, he was elected to the Senate as one
of the first two senators from the new state of Oklahoma. He was re-elected in
1908 and 1914 but defeated in 1920. He was known as a member of the progressive
wing of the Democratic Party, who worked with Republicans such as Robert La
Follette. He was to a large extent no different from any other politician
because of his blindness, but there were problems, as La Follette recounts an
example in his memoirs when, during a filibuster, Gore did not realize that the
senator who was to take over speaking for him had left the room, and the
filibuster failed because he did not continue to speak. Also, some of Gore's
colleagues in the Senate would attempt to take advantage of Gore's blindness by
tricking him into signing documents that it was not in his party's interest for
him to sign. He was famous for turning the tables on these sharp dealers and
tricking them into signing documents that they did not intend to sign. These
exploits made him popular with the press who dubbed him "The Blind Cowboy."
He is also noted as being the author of a bill placed before the United States
Senate during the early stages of World War I which encouraged American
citizens not to travel aboard belligerent merchant vessels. The merchant
vessels were under threat of attack by German U-boats, and the Senator felt the
loss of American lives upon these boats threatened official American neutrality
at the time. Though previously a strong supporter of President Woodrow Wilson,
Gore opposed the United States entry into World War I even after American
involvement began. This largely caused Gore to be defeated in the Democratic
primary in 1920. On domestic policy he was a supporter of the interests of
farmers and native Americans.
Gore was re-elected in 1930 to the Senate. When Franklin D. Roosevelt first
took office as President, Gore at first supported his New Deal but later feuded
with him. After Gore retired from the US Senate in January, 1937, after losing
the 1936 Democratic primary, he practiced law in Washington, D.C., until his
death on March 16, 1949. Gore was initially buried at Rosehill Cemetery,
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, but was later reinterred on July 19, 1949, in Fairlawn
Cemetery, also in Oklahoma City.
He married Nina Belle Kay (1877 - 1963), a Texas plantation owner's daughter,
on December 27, 1900. They had two children, Nina S. Gore (1903 - 1978) (the
mother of Gore Vidal) and Thomas Notley Gore (born 1910).
His grandson, Gore Vidal, who has made his own fame as an author, has stated
that his grandfather was an atheist and had a strong misanthropic streak - a
populist who didn't like people, as Vidal put it. During a speech to the
National Press Club (November 4, 1994) Vidal claimed that Thomas Gore had said
"If there was any race other than the human race, I'd go join it."
A major road artery in Lawton, Oklahoma, Gore Boulevard, is named after him, as
is the eastern Oklahoma village of Gore.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gore
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