Collection Title: Jackson Purchase Oral History Project – Politics and Government
Series Number: OH172
Interviewee: Freeman, Wayne W.
Interviewer: James W. Hammack Jr.
Date interviewed: January 29, 1992 and February 27, 1992
Processed by: Processed by Benjamin J. Drake in April of 2012.
Date processed: April 24, 2012
Description: 4 sound discs (2 hours, 35 minutes)
Abstract: Wayne W. Freeman discusses his upbringing in western Kentucky and his career in politics during the 1940s and 1950s. Freeman recounts his time at Murray State Teacher's College in the 1930s and his involvement in student government and local politics. He describes his election to the Kentucky State Legislature in 1940 and state politics during the Second World War. He further offers his opinions on prominent political figures including Alben Barkley, Happy Chandler, Harry Lee Waterfield, and Earle C. Clements. Freeman also recalls the significant political issues of the era such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, state income tax, and the Keeneland Racetrack at Lexington.
Biographical / Historical note: Wayne W. Freeman served as the Kentucky state senator from the First District from 1951 to 1967 and as state representative for Graves County from 1936 to 1940. Freeman was born on December 25, 1912 near Symsonia, Kentucky. He graduated of Symsonia High School in 1933 and a received a bachelor's degree in education from Murray State Teachers College (Murray State University) in 1936. He later attended Georgetown University Law School and the Jefferson School of Law (University of Louisville). He began practicing law in Mayfield, Kentucky in 1948. Freeman also served three terms as railroad commissioner and served as a delegate to the 1960 and 1968 Democratic National conventions. He died at age 83 in Mayfield in 1993.
General information: No user access to original recordings. Use audio user copies, digital derivatives, transcripts, and/or tape indexes. This collection may be protected from unauthorized copying by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code). Permission for reproduction must be requested from Murray State University.
Subject Headings / Descriptors:
Freeman, Wayne W., 1912-1993
Kentucky – Politics and government.
Graves County (Ky.) – Politics and government.
Legislators – Kentucky.
