Joe L. Evins | |
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Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 4th district |
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In office January 3, 1953 – January 3, 1977 |
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Preceded by | Albert Gore, Sr. |
Succeeded by | Albert Gore, Jr. |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 5th district |
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In office January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1953 |
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Preceded by | Harold Earthman |
Succeeded by | Percy Priest |
Personal details | |
Born |
DeKalb County, Tennessee |
October 24, 1910
Died | March 31, 1984 Nashville, Tennessee |
(aged 73)
Political party | Democratic |
Alma mater |
Vanderbilt University Cumberland School of Law George Washington University |
Joseph Landon Evins (October 24, 1910 – March 31, 1984) was a Democratic U.S. Representative from Tennessee from 1947 to 1977.
Evins was a native of the Blend Community of DeKalb County, Tennessee, the son of James Edgar Evins and Myrtie Goodson Evins. His father was a Tennessee state senator and a successful local businessman.
Joe L. Evins graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee in 1933 and the Cumberland School of Law in Lebanon, Tennessee in 1934, as well as The George Washington University. He was admitted to the bar in that same year and began practice in Smithville, county seat of DeKalb County.
In 1935 Evins was named a staff attorney for the Federal Trade Commission, and served in this position until 1938, when he was named the FTC's assistant secretary, a position which he held until 1940. Shortly after U.S. entry into World War II, he was commissioned in the United States Army Judge Advocate General Corps, serving on active duty until 1946, when he resumed his law practice in Smithville. Upon his return, he was also elected chairman of the DeKalb County Democratic Party. Later in that same year, he won the nomination of the Democratic Party for the seat from the 5th District. He won the election easily in this solidly-Democratic area, and was re-elected to fourteen more terms, generally with little or no opposition. His district was renumbered the 4th after the 1950 Census, when Tennessee lost a congressional district.