Frank L. Greene

American politician

Frank Lester Greene (February 10, 1870December 17, 1930) was a Vermont newspaper editor and militia officer. He is most notable for his service as a United States Representative and Senator. A native of St. Albans, Vermont, he was educated in St. Albans and Cleveland, Ohio, and began working as a teenager to help support his family after his father became disabled. He became a clerk for the Central Vermont Railway, and later became a journalist and editor of the St. Albans Messenger newspaper. Greene also served in the militia; enlisting as a private, by the time of the Spanish–American War he was a company commander with the rank of captain. He later served on the military staff of Governor Edward Curtis Smith, with the rank of colonel; Smith had been his employer at the Central Vermont Railway and St. Albans Messenger. Long active in politics and government as a Republican, in 1912 he won a special election to complete the term of Congressman David J. Foster, who had died. He was reelected to a full term in November 1912, and won reelection to four more terms. In 1922, Greene was elected to the United States Senate. He was reelected in 1928, and served until his death. In 1924, Greene was wounded when Prohibition agents attempting to apprehend the owners of a Washington, D. C., moonshine still accidentally shot him in the head. Greene never fully recovered, and was left partly paralyzed. He died as the result of surgical complications while being treated for a hernia, and was buried in St. Albans.

Frank Greene was born in St. Albans, Vermont, on February 10, 1870, the son of Lester Bruce Greene and Mary Elizabeth (Hoadley) Greene. He attended the public schools in St. Albans and Cleveland, Ohio.

Greene served in the Vermont National Guard from 1888 to 1900.

A Republican, Greene was Chairman of Vermont's Young Men's Republican Club in the 1890s. In 1906 Greene was appointed to head a commission that examined the state normal schools, and in 1908 he was a member of the commission that proposed amendments to the Vermont Constitution.

Greene was elected as a Republican to the House of Representatives during the 62nd Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of David J. Foster. He was reelected every two years from 1912 to 1920, and served from July 30, 1912, to March 3, 1923. In 1914 he was chairman of the Vermont State Republican Convention. He was a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution from 1917 to 1923. In 1922 Greene was elected to the U. S. Senate. While in the Senate, he was Chairman of the Committee on Enrolled Bills (69th through 71st Congresses). Greene was reelected in 1928 and served from March 4, 1923, until his death.

On the evening of February 15, 1924, Greene was walking with his wife near an alley on Capitol Hill when Prohibition agents were about to arrest several men unloading a still from their car. The bootleggers ran, the agents fired their guns, and Greene was struck in the head by a stray bullet. Greene was in critical condition for several weeks, and never fully recovered. His right arm was paralyzed, and his legs were severely weakened.

Greene died in St. Albans on December 17, 1930, from complications during surgery for a hernia. He was interred at Greenwood Cemetery in St. Albans.

Greene was a member of several veterans organizations, including the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Military Order of Foreign Wars, and United Spanish War Veterans.

Greene received an honorary Master of Arts degree from Norwich University in 1908. He received an honorary LL. D. from Norwich in 1915.

In 1895 Greene married Jessie Emma Richardson (1873–1949).