Tennessee has lost one of its most colorful and durable political figures in the death of former Lt. Gov. John Shelton Wilder last Friday at the age of 88.
Lt. Gov. Wilder, by virtue of that office, was first in the line of succession to become governor of Tennessee in case of the death or resignation of the governor. Such a situation never arose during his tenure as lieutenant governor. But he was lieutenant governor longer than any other person in any state in American history, 36 years of the 44 years he was in the Tennessee Senate.
He was elected from Mason, Tenn., in Fayette County, near Memphis. Tennessee is nearly 600 miles from west to east and nearly 150 miles from north to south. Gov. Wilder used to fly his own private airplane from his West Tennessee home to the legislative meetings in the state Capitol in Nashville.
For exercise during long legislative sessions, he customarily rode a bicycle around town, once suffering painful and serious injuries in an accident.
He was a Democrat who sometimes cooperated with then-minority Republicans to gain the necessary Senate votes for him to retain his position as speaker of the Senate when some Democrats had differing views. And speak he often did as he presided over the Tennessee Senate, making sometimes rambling dissertations that mystified his fellow legislators.
He was elected to the Tennessee Senate for the first time in 1959 for a two-year term, was then out of office till 1966, when he returned to serve his total of 44 years.
Lt. Gov. Wilder was voluble and friendly and very much dedicated to legislative business of the state that he loved and served for so long.