Lloyd Crow Stark (D)

Overview

At a Glance

• Created what is now the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center in Columbia, Missouri (1937)
• Nearly doubled statewide appropriations for public schools
• Helped bring down the Pendergast political machine in Kansas City
• Implemented reforms of the New Deal in social welfare, public works and education
• Closed county poorhouses

Personal History

Lloyd Crow Stark was born on Nov. 23, 1886, on a farm in Pike County, Missouri. He attended the United States Naval Academy, graduating in 1908. After serving in the U.S. Navy, Stark returned to his hometown, Louisiana, Missouri, and worked in the family business, known today as Stark Bro’s Nurseries & Orchards Co. Stark’s great-grandfather, James Hart Stock, founded the business in 1816. It was the first operation of its kind west of the Mississippi River.

Via the nursery, Lloyd Stark displayed his considerable political talents within the business community. In 1914, he became president of the Mississippi Valley Apple Growers Association and later served as president of the Louisiana Missouri Chamber of Commerce and the American Association of Nurserymen.

In 1917—the year America entered World War I—Stark joined the U.S. Army. He commanded the 2nd Battalion, 315th Field Artillery, and before the war’s end, he led the entire regiment.

After World War I, Stark returned to Louisiana and expanded the family operation in his new role as general manager. While expanding his business, Stark also developed a statewide reputation as one of Missouri's potential future political leaders. Stark's presidency of the Missouri-Illinois Bridge Company introduced him to the politics of highway construction. In 1928, Stark chaired the Citizens' Road Committee in Missouri, successfully advocating for a $75 million highway bond issue. At that time, the magnitude of this bond issue was unprecedented.

Stark was elected governor in 1936 and served one term. After an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate in 1940, Stark returned to rural life. He operated three farms in northeast Missouri in addition to his worldwide nursery and orchard corporation. In semi-retirement, Stark began a profitable career as a breeder of American Saddlebred and Percheron horses, Hereford cattle, Hampshire hogs, sheep, and hunting dogs. Following his death on September 17, 1972, he was buried in Riverview Cemetery in Jefferson City.

Political History

Though Stark's drive for the governorship began in 1928, he was initially unsuccessful. Four years later, a second attempt also failed when Tom Pendergast, the Kansas City political boss, picked state Sen. Francis M. Wilson. Wilson died unexpectedly before Election Day, but Pendergast again ignored Stark in favor of Guy Brasfield Park. By the end of Park's term as governor, Stark had developed a large rural constituency based on his advocacy of paved roads, from farm to market. This time, Pendergast picked Stark, virtually ensuring Stark’s victory first in the primary and then in the general election over the Republican candidate, Jesse W. Barrett.

Although Pendergast had helped him capture the governorship, Stark portrayed himself as a reformer once he became governor. Gov. Stark supported investigations into Pendergast-instigated voter fraud, appointed two anti-machine commissioners to the Kansas City election board, and removed a Pendergast appointee as superintendent of the Missouri Insurance Department, among other actions.

The final stage of the Pendergast machine's destruction occurred during the Democratic primary for the Missouri Supreme Court in 1938. The battle pitted James M. Douglas, Stark's candidate, against James V. Billings, who represented Pendergast's final attempt at controlling state politics. While Pendergast's handpicked Works Progress Administrator Matthew S. Murray coerced thousands of his employees to vote for Billings, Stark marshaled many state workers for his candidate.

When Douglas won, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt allowed federal patronage to flow into Stark's administration while the prosecution of Pendergast proceeded. Gov. Stark gained power over the Kansas City Police Board in April 1939, the same month a federal court indicted Pendergast for income tax evasion. 

In addition to his takedown of the Pendergast machine, Gov. Stark had other achievements during his term in office. Working closely with FDR's New Deal, Gov. Stark initiated many state programs based on Roosevelt's blueprint for relief, recovery, and reform, including closing county poorhouses throughout the state.

Stark's legislative victories in social welfare, public works, and education compared favorably with other accomplishments throughout the nation. Under Stark, statewide appropriations for public schools nearly doubled, from $7.4 million in 1935 to $13.5 million in 1939. Faculty salaries at the University of Missouri and state colleges gradually increased, and construction projects, delayed because of the Depression, began with increasing frequency. In addition, Stark's endorsement of collective bargaining won him the support of Missouri's labor unions.

By statute, Stark was limited to one term as governor, a directive that has since changed. Following his term as governor, Stark set his sights on national office in 1940: the U.S. Senate seat held by Harry S Truman. Unfortunately for Stark, several unforeseen factors contributed to his failure to secure a national Senate seat. First, federal prosecutor Maurice Milligan entered the Democratic primary, splitting the "reform vote." Second, Stark's educational achievements neglected Missouri's Black electorate, which Truman effectively cultivated. Third, labor unions felt closer to Truman than Stark. Finally, Truman used his contacts with independent farmers, Masons, and Baptists to his advantage, thus cutting into Stark's appeal to rural Missouri. Still, Stark lost to Truman by only 7,977 votes and carried more counties than Truman and Milligan combined

Historical Significance

Stark was the first Missouri governor to launch a major crusade against cancer, an initiative that resulted in the establishment of what is now Ellis Fischel Cancer Center in Columbia. On November 23, 1937, the Missouri State Cancer Commission selected the Columbia site because of the city’s location in the heart of Missouri at the intersection of two major highways of the time: Highway 40 and Highway 63. Two months later, the Columbia City Council appropriated $20,000 for the purchase of a 40-acre tract for the original building. Ellis Fischel is now part of the University of Missouri; in 2013, it moved to a new facility on University Hospital grounds.