Forrest Donnell (R)

Overview

At a Glance

• Backed higher salaries for legislators
• Supported marriage laws that required blood tests and waiting periods
• Advanced a state merit system, a secret-ballot measure, and a liquor-control law
• Brought state unemployment compensation in line with federal Social Security regulations
• Failed to accomplish civil service reform
• Failed attempt to make committee votes public

Personal History

Forrest C. Donnell was born on August 20, 1884, in Quitman, Missouri, the only child of John Cary and Barbara Lee Waggoner Donnell. The future governor attended private school in Cameron, Missouri, before graduating from Maryville High School in 1900. He then earned a Bachelor of Arts and a law degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. A child prodigy encouraged by his mother, Donnell was valedictorian of his graduating classes; in addition, he belonged to the honor societies Phi Beta Kappa and the Order of the Coif.

In 1907, Donnell was admitted to the Missouri Bar. He practiced law as a partner in a succession of St. Louis firms from 1907 to 1940, except for an appointment as the city attorney for Webster Groves, Missouri. He also served on several American Bar Association committees.

On January 29, 1913, Donnell married Hilda Hays of St. Louis. She gave birth to a daughter, Ruth, the following year and a son, John Lanier, in 1918. Raised a Presbyterian, Donnell deferred to his wife's Methodist faith and taught Sunday school at Grace Methodist Church in the St. Louis area. He presided over the Missouri Sunday School Council of Religious Education, as well as a local evangelistic union, and served as a state delegate to the General Conference of the Methodist Church. His secular commitments included service to the Missouri School for the Blind and the State Historical Society of Missouri. Later, as a 33rd-degree Mason, he led the state lodge.

Donnell, who never drank, smoked, or swore, practiced law well into his ninth decade. He died of pneumonia on March 3, 1980, and was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.

Political History

Donnell showed an interest in politics early in his life. Instead of following the family's southern Democratic heritage, however, he joined the Republican Party. In 1908—a year after graduating from law school—Donnell actively campaigned for Herbert S. Hadley, the first Republican to be elected governor after Reconstruction. Eight years later, Donnell became leader of the state's Young Republican group. Donnell’s Republicanism was nurtured by Selden Palmer Spencer, who recruited him out of law school, became his first law partner, and won the 1918 race for U.S. Senate.

In 1940, Donnell ran for governor. Given his widely known public service, Donnell easily defeated three primary candidates. In the general election, he ran against a former Sunday School pupil, Lawrence McDaniel, who was backed by the Democratic machine. Although few gave Donnell much chance of beating the candidate from the party of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt in a perennially Democratic state—and in a presidential election year, no less—Donnell stunned McDaniel. He won by only 3,613 votes, benefiting from an anti-machine campaign that divided the Democratic Party and brought him statewide support.

Democrats had won all other state executive offices and retained control of the state legislature, but party leaders feared a Republican Party rebirth through gubernatorial patronage. They charged voting irregularities and moved to deny Donnell's victory. McDaniel conceded only after a recount disclosed that the governor-elect had received even more votes than officially recorded.

Donnell was unable to run again for governor in 1944 because at that time, Missouri law limited governors to one term. Therefore, Donnell ran for the U.S. Senate against Democrat Roy A. McKittrick, Missouri’s Attorney General. He triumphed by a minuscule margin, just like he had in the gubernatorial election four years earlier.

Donnell’s record as a U.S. senator indicated that he identified with conservative Republicans on national issues. Donnell voted for the Taft-Hartley Act (1947) and similar anti-labor measures, while supporting lower income taxes and opposing an excess-profits tax. He proved moderate on social issues, endorsing public housing and federal aid to education. Donnell continued his lifelong opposition to patronage and voted against President Harry S Truman's appointment of such friends as Democratic National Committee Chairman Robert Emmet Hannegan for postmaster general.

In 1950, Donnell lost his bid for another term in the U.S. Senate. Democrat Thomas C. Hennings Jr. defeated Donnell by 92,593 votes, making Donnell the only incumbent Republican senator to lose that year.

Inaugurated on February 26, 1941, more than six weeks after the official inauguration date, Donnell presented an ambitious agenda. He advanced a state merit system, a secret-ballot measure, and a liquor control law. He brought state unemployment compensation in line with federal Social Security regulations and backed higher salaries for legislators. However, Donnell failed to convince lawmakers of benefits derived from infusing the state Social Security system with matching federal dollars; his initiatives for civil service reform and public disclosure of committee votes also languished.

Historical Significance

Donnell did not actively promote the history-making Missouri Constitutional Convention, which occurred during the second half of his administration. The new constitution became law shortly after Donnell departed the governor’s office in 1945. Like other incumbents of both parties, Donnell questioned the partisan impact of the new constitution. Politically, he drew his core support from rural voters opposing constitutional revision and, philosophically, he opposed expanding governmental power.

Donnell's record reveals problems wrought by World War II, his personal philosophy, and party politics. He spent much time on the international crisis, creating a State Defense Council that he chaired. He benefited from a boom economy that stimulated military production and created surplus revenue but limited the building of much-needed public projects. Amid these concerns, he reacted forthrightly to both the lynching of Cleo Wright in Sikeston and efforts to defuse racial tension in St. Louis. To avoid a riot, Gov. Donnell teamed with the Scarlett Committee, a bi-racial committee of prominent businesspeople and other professionals formed by Episcopalian Bishop William Scarlett.