June 24: Fred Vinson Becomes Chief Justice (1946)
Prayer Idea
Pray for people who are willing to serve where they are needed.
History Note
Frederick Moore Vinson was born in 1890 in Louisa, Kentucky, a small town in the Appalachian Mountains of Eastern Kentucky on the border with West Virginia. In his campaign speeches early in his career, Vinson jokingly said that he was born in a jail. Vinson’s father was the county jailer, and his family lived in a house directly behind the jail.
The Vinson family was friends with the local judge, who often let Fred sit beside him on the bench while he was holding court. Fred was a good student in school and loved sports, especially baseball. He was also quarterback of his high school football team. A major influence in Fred’s early life was his mother, who always believed in him.
After becoming an attorney and working in local government for several years, Fred Vinson began a long career working in the federal government. He is one of relatively few people who served in all three branches of the federal government—legislative (Congress), executive (presidential administration), and judicial (court system).
Vinson was first elected to Congress in 1924. He supported President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs during the Great Depression. Roosevelt nominated Vinson to serve as a judge on the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and then assigned him to work as director of the Office of Economic Stabilization.
Fred Vinson was present when Harry Truman took the oath of office as president on April 12, 1945, after the death of Franklin Roosevelt. Vinson was a friend and adviser of Harry Truman, who had great respect for Vinson. He often attended Truman’s poker games in the White House. President Truman nominated Vinson to be Secretary of the Treasury, an office he held for just under a year.
Then in June 1946 President Truman nominated Vinson to be chief justice of the United States Supreme Court. This was the last time that a president has nominated a current or former member of Congress to the Supreme Court. The Senate confirmed Vinson by a unanimous voice vote, and he took the oath of office on June 24.
Fred Vinson died suddenly of a massive heart attack on September 8, 1953, at the age of 63. After a funeral in Washington, D.C., at the National Cathedral, another funeral honored Vinson at his church in his hometown of Louisa, Kentucky. Government officials and others filled the 300 seats inside, and hundreds more listened on loudspeakers outside.
The minister who presided at the funeral later recalled, “The graveside service was simple with hundreds of people there paying tribute to one they loved, to a local boy buried in judicial robe and one who started there sixty-three years ago and who had reached the highest pinnacle in his profession, but still a local boy. To me,” the minister said, “this was and is America.”
This 1935 photo shows members of Congress singing together as they prepare to adjourn. Fred Vinson is third from right in the back row. Photo by Harris & Ewing, courtesy the Library of Congress.
Learn More
This is a 1946 newsreel about Fred Vinson becoming Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
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