William F. Knowland Totally Explained

Everything about William F Knowland totally explained

William Fife Knowland (June 26 1908 – February 23 1974) was a United States politician, newspaperman, and Republican Party leader. He served as the United States Senate Majority Leader (1953-1955), as United States Senate Minority Leader (1955-1959), and succeeded his father, Joseph R. Knowland, as the editor and publisher of the Oakland Tribune.

Background

William F. "Bill" Knowland was born in the City of Alameda, Alameda County, California. His father, Joseph R. Knowland, was serving his third term as a United States Congressman. He was the third child, with an older sister, Elinor (1895-1978), and a brother, Joseph Russell "Russ" Knowland, Jr. (1901-1961). Bill's grandfather, Joseph Knowland (1833-1912), had made the family fortune in the lumber business. Bill's mother, Elinor Fife Knowland, died on July 20 1908, less than a month after his birth. His father's second wife, Emelyn S. West, raised Billy as her own son.

Youth

A young Billy Knowland made speeches for U.S. President Warren G. Harding at the age of 12, married at 19, became a California State Assemblyman at 25, entered the United States Senate at 37, and became a grandfather at 41.

Early political career

Bill Knowland, president of the student body, graduated from Alameda High School in the Class of 1925. He graduated with a political science degree in three years from the University of California, Berkeley in 1929. He was a member of Zeta Psi fraternity. California governor C. C. Young and University of California president William W. Campbell praised Knowland's political activities as a university student.
In Sacramento, he was a member of the 50th Session (1933) of the California State Assembly and the 51st (1935) and 52nd Sessions (1937) of the California State Senate.
He served in a number of roles in the California Republican Party. He was also influential on the national scene, serving as the chairman of the executive committee of the Republican National Committee from 1940 to 1942.

World War II

In June 1942, William F. Knowland was drafted into the U.S. Army for World War II service. He began as a private, advanced to private first class and acting sergeant. Sent to the infantry's officer candidate school. Commissioned a second lieutenant and made an aide to Brigadier General M. L. Stockton. Knowland was stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington. He was promoted to captain and sent to the military government school in Virginia. Sent to London, he survived the German buzz bomb raids of February 1944. Captain Knowland was attached to Forward Echelon Communications Zone and landed at Normandy, one month after D-Day in July 1944. He was assigned to Advance Section south of Paris, France, and from there to Rheims and later to Namur, Belgium. Knowland had risen to the rank of major when assigned January 8 1945 to the 15th U.S. Army at Bad Neuenahr, Germany. Transferred to the 5th Information and Historical Service, the G-5 (military government) section from May 9 until July 30 1945.

United States Senator

On August 6 1945, Hiram Johnson, the senior U.S. Senator from California, died. August 14 1945, Governor of California Earl Warren appointed Bill Knowland to the seat Hiram Johnson had held since 1917. Many Democrats felt this was political payback to Joseph R. Knowland. The elder Knowland had done much to further Warren's career. Warren first offered the Senate seat to the senior Knowland, who declined Warren's offer, saying: "bring my boy Billy home". Major Knowland was serving on special duty with the Army Public Relations Section as part of the European Occupation Forces in Paris. Knowland always said he learned of his new job from an article in Stars and Stripes. William F. Knowland's wife Helen tried to telephone him with the news, but she couldn't get past the military censors, who said it wasn't essential government business.
   William F. Knowland was sworn in as a freshman senator of the 79th Congress September 6 1945, the day the Senate adjourned in memory of Hiram Johnson.
   Assigned membership in the Senate Commerce Committee, Irrigation and Reclamation and Immigration Committee, and the Senate National Defense Committee (formerly the Truman Committee).
   In 1946, Knowland had to win the Senate seat in his own right. The June Democratic primary pitted Will Rogers, Jr. (son of the humorist) and Ellis Patterson. Knowland won by nearly 261,000 votes.
   Senator Knowland became a caustic critic of the Harry S. Truman administration. He would be most critical of the president's Asian policy. Knowland was critical of the actions in the "loss" of China to Communism and the Korean War. Knowland became known as the "Senator from Formosa" for his strong support for Nationalists over the Communists in China.
   Bill Knowland placed in nomination Earl Warren, as Republican Vice Presidential candidate in 1948. The Republican Dewey-Warren ticket would lose to Democratic Truman-Barkley.
   In the June 1952 primary election, the last election in which cross-filing in multiple primaries was permitted in California, Knowland defeated his Democratic opponent Clinton McKinnon. Knowland won 2.5 million votes to McKinnon's 750,000. The victory gave Knowland both Democratic and Republican nominations. In November, Knowland was reelected with 3.9 million votes. He carried 57 of the 58 counties. On the death of Senator Robert A. Taft, Knowland was selected as the Senate Majority Leader from 1953 to 1955, and then as the Senate Minority Leader from 1955 to 1959. His Democratic counterpart across the aisle was Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas.
   The "most exclusive club of 96" was how Knowland felt about the U.S Senate. He was slow to criticize its errant member, Wisconsin's Republican junior senator, Joseph McCarthy.
   President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren to be Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1953. In this appointment, many felt that Joseph Knowland was paying Warren back for Bill's senate seat.
   After President Eisenhower's heart attack, Senator Knowland floated his candidacy for President in 1956, but withdrew when the president decided to run for re-election. On appointing Knowland as delegate to the Eleventh General Assembly of the United Nations in 1956, President Eisenhower wrote: "Knowland brings to his leadership post an absolute, unflinching integrity that rises above politics. In the councils of government, he inspires faith in his motives and gives weight to his words."
   Knowland had a long-running battle with Richard Nixon, with whom he served in the Senate from 1951 to 1953, for influence in Republican Party affairs in California. Nonetheless, he gave Nixon the constitutional oath for Vice President of the United States in 1953 and 1957.
   In 1956, Knowland was Temporary Chairman at the Republican National Convention, which was held at the San Francisco Cow Palace.
   In 1957, William F. Knowland and Lyndon B. Johnson crafted and passed, in the Senate, a watered down Civil Rights Bill. It was the first such act since Reconstruction.
   Senator Knowland declined to run for re-election in the Senate in 1958. His father was shaken by the decision. The elder Knowland cherished the U.S. Senate seat, which he been denied by voters in 1914. Lyndon Johnson valued William F. Knowland's friendship from their years in the Senate. Johnson spoke in the Congressional Record on January 9 1957, on Knowland's departure from the Senate: "In the hill country of Texas, where the Johnsons have lived for more than 100 years, we talk of people who 'will go to the well' with a man. It is an expression rarely used, and it implies the kind of praise. It means that the man deserves the utmost of confidence in any sitution - no matter how dangerous or how risky it may be. Bill Knowland is that kind of a man. He has the qualities of head and heart which have made him a great public servant. One of the proudest boasts of my life is that he's my treasured and trusted friend." Later, President Johnson would look for advice and solace from his cherished friend Knowland. Their friendship lasted until LBJ's 1973 death.

1958

In 1958, Knowland ran for Governor of California. He won the Republican nomination after a brutal contest with California governor Goodwin J. Knight. In the "Big Switch," Knight ran for Knowland's U.S. Senate seat and Knowland ran for governor. Many felt Knowland would use the office of governor to lead the California Republican delegation in 1960, and try to deny the nomination for President of the United States to Vice President Nixon and take it himself. Knowland endorsed Proposition 18 (Right To Work Law). He was soundly defeated in the general election by the Democratic candidate, California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown, and Congressman Clair Engle defeated Knight. This effectively ended Knowland's political career. Many California Republicans were defeated. Among Joseph R. Knowland's proteges, Congressman John J. Allen, Jr. lost his House seat and Alameda County Supervisor Kent D. Pursel lost his race for the California State Senate. To pay off some of Bill's campaign debts, Joseph R. Knowland had to sell his Oakland Tribune radio station KLX to Crowell Collier Broadcasting. William F. Knowland never again ran for any elective office.

After politics

William F. Knowland's brother Russ died on October 6 1961; thereby, Bill became the sole successor to his father and to control of the Oakland Tribune.
   The GOP Convention returned to San Francisco's Cow Palace in 1964. Barry Goldwater was selected as the party nominee. Knowland backed the Goldwater-Miller ticket and spoke for the Arizona senator all over the nation.
   Knowland, who had been the titular head of the California Republican Party since 1959, gave the power of the party leadership in 1967 to the new governor, Ronald Reagan. Knowland became President, Editor, and Publisher of the Oakland Tribune in 1966, after the death of his father. He would keep the Tribune a solidly Republican paper. His son, Joseph W. Knowland, was Assistant Publisher with the position of Assistant General Manager. Oakland and the East Bay Area were changing, with the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley, the Black Panthers, and the white flight to the suburbs. Knowland was caught in a vortex.
   In a cost-cutting move that hurt the Tribune, the Southern Alameda County and Contra Costa County editions were trimmed. This opened the areas to Floyd Sparks' Hayward Daily Review and Dean Lesher's Contra Costa Times. In early 1968, Tribune circulation rose because the major San Francisco newspapers were on strike. When the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner returned, Tribune sales fell in home delivery and on-the-street sales.
   As editor and publisher, the senator took an interest in local affairs along with this job; no more would his mind have to be on national and foreign policy. He offered a $100,000 reward for the conviction of those responsible for the November 6 1973 murder of Marcus A. Foster. The Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) claimed responsibility. On February 4 1974, the SLA kidnapped Patricia Hearst, UC Berkeley co-ed and daughter of Randolph A. Hearst, editor of the San Francisco Examiner. On February 20 1974, the SLA kidnapped J. Reginald Murphy, the editor of the Atlanta Constitution. These acts made Knowland fearful for his own safety.

100 years

The Oakland Tribune turned 100 years old on February 21 1974. Senator Knowland spoke on the occasion: "For 100 years this newspaper has participated in the growth of Alameda and Contra Costa counties.... Now as we look into the future it becomes ever more important that newspapers here and in other cities keep the public adequately informed." The Senator went to all departments on that Thursday. At the banquet at Goodman's Hall, California governor Ronald Reagan praised the Oakland Tribune, Joseph R. Knowland, and Bill Knowland. As the day progressed, his daughter, Emelyn, saw the Senator became distant. His responses to Reagan and Oakland mayor John H. Reading were stilted and mechanical.

Suicide

On Saturday, February 23 1974, Senator Knowland died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, an apparent suicide, at his summer home near Guerneville, Sonoma County, California. His funeral was held at First Congregational Church in Oakland. At the service was played the rarely heard Official State Song, "I Love You, California". A niche is marked for Senator William Fife Knowland (R-CA) at the Mountain View Columbarium, Oakland, California. At the Chapel of Memories in Oakland, California, a double book urn has only one side inscribed, U.S. Senator William F. Knowland, 1908-1974.

Aftermath

The Oakland Tribune was sold in 1977 by the Knowland family. After three ownership changes, today the newspaper is only a masthead of various editions of the Alameda Newspaper Group.

Marriages

William F. Knowland was married to Helen Davis Herrick (1907-1981), whom he'd met in the sixth grade, on New Year's Eve 1926. Their divorce was finalized on March 15 1972. He married Ann Dickson (1931-1984) on April 29 1972; she survived the Senator.

Children

Emelyn K. Jewett, Joseph William Knowland, and Estelle Knowland.

Stepchildren

Kay Sessinghaus and Steve Sessinghaus.

Further Information

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