Джозеф Лэндон Эвинс: Американ саяхатшысы және заңгері

American politician (1910–1984)

Joseph Landon Evins (October 24, 1910 – March 31, 1984) was an American lawyer and politician who served 15 terms as a Democratic U. S. Representative from Tennessee from 1947 to 1977.

Evins was a native of the Blend Community of DeKalb County, Tennessee, the son of James Edgar Evins and Myrtie Goodson Evins. He was also the namesake of Edgar Evins State Park near Smithville. One of his brother's children ran a local bank. Another nephew, Dan Evins, was the founder of the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store restaurant chain. Evins graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee in 1933 and the Cumberland School of Law in Lebanon, Tennessee in 1934, as well as The George Washington University. He was admitted to the bar in that same year and began practice in Smithville, the county seat of DeKalb County. Evins, a conservative Democrat, was slow to accept racial desegregation. He signed the 1956 Southern Manifesto and voted against the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964, and 1968. But Evins voted present on the 24th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution. and voted in favor of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Evins decided not to stand for re election in 1976, after serving a total of 15 terms. At the time of his retirement in January 1977, his continuous service in the U. S. House of Representatives was longer than that of any other House member from Tennessee. In a spirited primary to succeed him, Al Gore won and began his political career.

His wife, Ann Smartt, with whom he had three daughters, was the daughter of a McMinnville judge. Evins died in Nashville on March 31, 1984, and is buried in the Smithville Town Cemetery in Smithville.