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Thruston B. Morton
Chair of the Republican National Committee
In office July 1, 1959 – June 2, 1961
Preceded by	Meade Alcorn
Succeeded by	William E. Miller
United States Senator from Kentucky
In office January 3, 1957 – December 16, 1968
Preceded by	Earle Clements
Succeeded by	Marlow Cook
4th Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs
In office January 30, 1953 – February 29, 1956
President	Dwight D. Eisenhower
Preceded by	Jack K. McFall
Succeeded by	Robert C. Hill
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky's 3rd district
In office January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1953
Preceded by	Emmet O'Neal
Succeeded by	John Robsion
Personal details
Born	(1907-08-19)August 19, 1907 Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Died	August 14, 1982(1982-08-14) (aged 74) Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Resting place	Cave Hill Cemetery Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Belle Clay Lyons
Relations	Rogers Morton (brother)
Children	2
Education	Yale University (BA)
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	United States Navy
Unit	United States Naval Reserve
Battles/wars	World War II

Thruston Ballard Morton (August 19, 1907 – August 14, 1982) was an American politician. A Republican, Morton represented Kentucky in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.

Early life

Morton was born on August 19, 1907, in Louisville, Kentucky, to Dave Morton and his wife, Mary Ballard, descended from pioneer settlers of the area. He had a brother, Rogers Clark Ballard Morton, who also became a politician, and a sister, Jane, who survived him. He attended local public schools and the Woodberry Forest School, before he entered Yale University. He received a B.A. there in 1929.

Morton then worked in the family business, Ballard & Ballard Flour Milling, becoming its chairman of the board before the company was sold to the Pillsbury Company.

A lifelong Episcopalian, he married Belle Clay Lyons and was survived by their two sons, Clay Lyons Morton and Thruston Ballard Morton Jr., and five grandchildren.

His brother, Rogers Clark Ballard Morton, represented Maryland in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1963 through 1971. The Morton brothers served together in the U.S. Congress from 1963 to 1968, with Thruston as a U.S. Senator representing Kentucky and Rogers as a U.S. Representative representing Maryland. Both brothers also served as chair of the Republican National Committee.

Rogers Morton subsequently became U.S. Secretary of the Interior in the administration of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and then became U.S. Secretary of Commerce under Ford, before chairing Ford's re-election campaign in 1976.

Political career

U.S. House of Representatives

After naval service in World War II, Morton defeated the 12-year Democratic incumbent, Rep. Emmet O'Neal, in the 1946 election in his native Louisville area (Kentucky's 3rd congressional district), 61,899 votes to 44,599 votes. Having been re-elected in 1948 and 1950, Morton served three terms in the House, from January 3, 1947, to January 3, 1953.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State

Morton did not seek re-election in 1952. After leaving the House, Morton was appointed as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations in the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, garnering legislators' support for Eisenhower's foreign policy.

U.S. Senate

In 1956, Morton, by a very narrow margin, defeated the Democratic incumbent, Sen. Earle Clements from Kentucky, a former governor of Kentucky and then-minority whip in the U.S. Senate, by 506,903 votes to 499,922. Morton was re-elected to a second term in the U.S. Senate in 1962, defeating the Democratic lieutenant governor and former mayor of Louisville, Wilson W. Wyatt. Morton served from January 3, 1957, until his resignation, on December 16, 1968.

In the Senate, Morton was considered a moderate. He voted in favor of the Senate amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1957 on August 7, 1957, but did not vote on the House amendment to the bill on August 29, 1957. Morton voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1960, 1964, and 1968, as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court. A compromise that Morton proposed to guarantee jury trials in all criminal contempt cases except for voting rights proved, with the assistance of Sens. Everett Dirksen from Illinois and Bourke Hickenlooper from Iowa, crucial in passing that Civil Rights Act.

Morton was the chair of the Republican National Committee from 1959 to 1961 and chaired the Republican National Convention of 1964.

When Morton retired, he surprised many, who considered him at the peak of his political power. However, he opposed the Vietnam War despite being criticized by Rep. William Cowger from Kentucky. Also, he was both depressed by the urban violence after the April 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and that of Robert F. Kennedy a few weeks later, and disappointed in his party's failure to address the broader social issues. He also ultimately counseled then-President Lyndon Johnson to decline to seek re-election, and he supported the unsuccessful presidential candidacy of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller of New York.

Morton is interviewed in the 1968 documentary film In the Year of the Pig, and another interview is available through the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library.

Consideration for 1960 Vice Presidential Nomination

Morton was among the last two candidates considered by Richard Nixon as a vice presidential running mate in 1960. As a midwesterner, however, he was considered to have a regional appeal where Nixon already figured to poll strongly and Nixon instead chose Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., of Massachusetts.

Later life

After his retirement from the U.S. Senate, Morton served as vice chairman of Liberty National Bank in Louisville, president of the American Horse Council, and chairman of the board of Churchill Downs, and he served as one of the directors of the University of Louisville, Pillsbury Company, Pittston Company, Louisville Board of Trade, Texas Gas Company, R.J. Reynolds Company, and the Ohio Valley Assembly.

Morton died after many years of declining health. His brother Rogers Morton had died three years previously, and his wife, Belle, survived him by more than a decade. He was interred at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville.

Legacy

His papers are held by Louisville's Filson Historical Society, which his grandfather had revitalized. The Kentucky Digital Library has a collection of his speeches.

References

1. Caro, Robert. The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate, Alfred A. Knopf, 2002, New York, p. 658
2. "Senate – August 7, 1957" (PDF). Congressional Record. 103 (10). U.S. Government Printing Office: 13900. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 8, 2021. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
3. "Senate – August 29, 1957" (PDF). Congressional Record. 103 (12). U.S. Government Printing Office: 16478. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 8, 2021. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
4. "Senate – April 8, 1960" (PDF). Congressional Record. 106 (6). U.S. Government Printing Office: 7810–7811. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 31, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
5. "Senate – June 19, 1964" (PDF). Congressional Record. 110 (11). U.S. Government Printing Office: 14511. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 31, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
6. "Senate – March 11, 1968" (PDF). Congressional Record. 114 (5). U.S. Government Printing Office: 5992. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 21, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
7. "Senate – March 27, 1962" (PDF). Congressional Record. 108 (4). U.S. Government Printing Office: 5105. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 31, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
8. "Senate – May 26, 1965" (PDF). Congressional Record. 111 (2). U.S. Government Printing Office: 11752. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 6, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
9. "Senate – August 4, 1965" (PDF). Congressional Record. 111 (14). U.S. Government Printing Office: 19378. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
10. "Senate – August 30, 1967" (PDF). Congressional Record. 113 (18). U.S. Government Printing Office: 24656. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 6, 2022. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
11. Library of Congress exhibition, The Civil Rights Act of 1964
12. "DiscoverLBJ" (PDF). transition.lbjlibrary.org. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
13. Ambrose, Stephen E. (1987). Nixon: The Education of a Politician, 1913–1962 (pbk ed.). New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 553. ISBN 0-671-65722-4.
14. Gaiter, Dorothy J. (August 15, 1982). "THRUSTON B. MORTON IS DEAD AT 74; SERVED AS SENATOR FROM KENTUCKY". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 9, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
15. "MORTON, Thruston Ballard". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Archived from the original on June 15, 2022. Retrieved June 14, 2022.
16. "Morton, Thruston Ballard (1907–1982) Papers, 1968–1982 | The Filson Historical Society". The Filson Historical Society. Archived from the original on December 20, 2015. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
17. "Kentucky Digital Library". kdl.kyvl.org. Archived from the original on February 7, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2018.

External links

• United States Congress. "Thruston Ballard Morton (id: M001022)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Guide to the Thruston B Morton papers, housed at the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center

v t e United States senators from Kentucky
Class 2	Brown Thruston Clay Bibb Walker Barry Hardin Crittenden Johnson Bibb Crittenden Morehead J. Underwood Thompson Powell Guthrie McCreery Stevenson Beck Carlisle Lindsay Blackburn Paynter James Martin Stanley Sackett Robsion Williamson M. Logan Chandler Stanfill Cooper Chapman T. Underwood Cooper Barkley Humphreys Cooper Huddleston McConnell
Class 3	Edwards Marshall J. Breckinridge Adair Clay Pope Bledsoe Talbot W. Logan Talbot Rowan Clay Crittenden Metcalfe Clay Meriwether Dixon Crittenden J. C. Breckinridge Davis Machen McCreery Williams Blackburn Deboe McCreary Bradley Camden Beckham Ernst Barkley Withers Clements Morton Cook Ford Bunning Paul

• 1907 births
• 1982 deaths
• Burials at Cave Hill Cemetery
• Politicians from Louisville, Kentucky
• Republican National Committee chairs
• Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Kentucky
• Republican Party United States senators from Kentucky
• United States Assistant Secretaries of State
• Woodberry Forest School alumni
• Yale University alumni
• 20th-century American Episcopalians
• 20th-century Kentucky politicians
• 20th-century United States senators
• 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives