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Created page with "{{Infobox officeholder |name=Kenneth Spicer Wherry |image=Kenneth Wherry of NE.jpg |office=United States Senator<br>for Nebraska |term_start=January 3, 1943 |term_end=..."
{{Infobox officeholder
|name=Kenneth Spicer Wherry
|image=Kenneth Wherry of NE.jpg
|office=[[United States Senator]]<br>for [[Nebraska]]
|term_start=January 3, 1943
|term_end=November 29, 1951
|predecessor=[[George Norris]]
|successor4=Fred A. Seaton
|office2=4th Senate Minority Leader
|term_start2=January 3, 1949
|term_end2=November 29, 1951
|predecessor2=[[Alben W. Barkley]]
|successor2=[[Styles Bridges]]
|office3=Senate Republican Conference leader
|term_start3=January 3, 1949
|term_end3=November 29, 1951
|predecessor3=Wallace H. White, Jr.
|successor3=Styles Bridges
|office4=Senate Majority Whip]]
|leader4=Wallace H. White, Jr.
|term_start4=January 3, 1947
|term_end4=January 3, 1949
|predecessor4=[[Lister Hill]]
|successor4=Francis J. Myers]
|office5=Senate Minority Whip
|leader5=[[Charles McNary]]<br>Wallace H. White, Jr.]]
|term_start5=January 3, 1943
|term_end5=January 3, 1947
|predecessor5=Felix Hebert (1935)
|successor5=Scott W. Lucas
|birth_date=February 28, 1892
|birth_place=Liberty, Gage County<br>Nebraska
|death_date=November 29, 1951 (aged 59)
|death_place=[[Washington, D.C.]]
|resting_place=Pawnee City (Nebraska) Cemetery
|party=[[Republican Party|Republican]]
|alma_mater=[[University of Nebraska–Lincoln]] (BA)
|spouse=Marjorie Colwell Wherry (married 1920-1951, his death)
|children=Marilynn Wherry Latta<br>
One son, name unavailabler
|branch=[[United States Navy]]
|serviceyears=1917–1918
|unit=Commander, Naval Air Forces
|battles=[[World War I]]
}}
'''Kenneth Spicer Wherry''' (February 28, 1892 – November 29, 1951)<ref name=findagrave>Kenneth Spicer Wherry (1892-1951) - Find A Grave Memorial, accessed March 31, 2021.</ref> was an [[United States|American]] [[business]]man, [[attorney]], and [[United States Senator]] for his native [[Nebraska]];, with service from 1943 until his death in office. He was the Senate Minority Leader for his last two years in office.
==Background==
Wherry was born in the [[village]] of Liberty in Gage County in southeastern Nebraska, to David Emery Wherry (1862-1847) and the former Jessie Comstock (1864-1934).<ref name=nebraska>{{cite web|publisher=Nebraska State Historical Society|title=Kenneth S. Wherry|url=http://www.nebraskahistory.org/lib-arch/research/manuscripts/politics/wherry.htm|accessdate=March 31, 2021}}</ref> He received his early education at public schools in Pawnee City in Pawnee County, located south of Gage County. He graduated from the University of Nebraska in the capital city of [[Lincoln, Nebraska|Lincoln]].<ref name=nebraska/><ref name>=congress>{{cite web|publisher=''Biographical Directory of the United States Congress''|title=Wherry, Kenneth Spicer, (1892-1951)|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=W000344|accessdate=March 29, 2021}}</ref> From 1915 to 1916, he studied business administration at [[Harvard University]] in [[Cambridge]], [[Massachusetts]].<ref name=nebraska/> During [[World War I]], Wherry served in the [[United States Navy]] Flying Corps.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pawneecountyhistory.com/yesteryear/wherry.htm|publisher=Pawnee County History|title=Kenneth S. Wherry|accessdate=March 31, 2021}}}</ref>
==Career==
Following his military service, Wherry began a business career selling [[automobile]]s, [[furniture]], and [[livestock]]. He also studied law, was admitted to the bar, and engaged in private practice in Pawnee City. He was even a licensed undertaker in Nebraska and [[Kansas]].<ref name=nebraska/>. He was a member of the city council in Pawnee City from 1927 to 1929, the [[mayor]] of Pawnee City from 1929 to 1931 and, again, from 1938 to 1943. He was a state senator from 1929 to 1932. He ran unsuccessfully for [[governor]] of Nebraska in 1932; he finished a strong second in the [[primary]] , but victory went to the [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] Robert LeRoy "Roy" Cochran (1886-1963). He also lost in the primary for U.S. Senator in 1934, when victory went to the Democrat Edward Raymond Burke (1880-1968). In 1942, he upset [[progressive]] [[George Norris]], a supporter of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and the [[New Deal]], in the Republican primary.. He was the Nebraska Republican state chairman and from 1941 to 1942and the western director for the [[Republican National Committee]]. He was reelected to the Senate in 1948, when [[Moderate Republican]] [[Thomas E. Dewey]] carried the state though defeated nationally by [[Harry Truman]], who became something of a nemesis to Wherry. He was the Republican whip from 1944 to 1949 before he became minority leader for the last two years of his life. From 1939 to 1942, he served from 1939 to 1942 as the chairman of Special Committee on Problems of Small Business during what Truman called "the do nothing 80th Congress."<ref>1947 Harry S. Truman - "Do Nothing Congress," State of the Union History.</ref>
Senator Wherry was an [[isolationist]] and an iconoclast in foreign affairs and was one of the few defenders of the [[Germany|German]] people suffering in the postwar years from starvation. He joined six colleagues in opposition to the U.S. entry into the [[United Nations]] because he expected none of these organizations to benefit the American people. He opposed the [[Marshall Plan]], the [[Truman Doctrine]], and entry into the [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1204.html#article|title=UNO Bill Approved By Senate, 65 to 7, With One Change|publisher=''[[The New York Times]]''|date=December 4, 1945|accessdate=March 31, 2021}}</ref> With conservative Senator [[Homer Capehart]] of [[Indiana]], he supported building military family housing in the post-[[World War II]] era.<ref>Bernard Lemelin, "Isolationist Voices in the Truman Era: Nebraska Senators Hugh Butler and Kenneth Wherry." ''Great Plains Quarterly'' (Vol. 37; issue2) (2017), ppp. 83-109.</ref> He was the leader of the twenty conservative isolationists in the Senate. He was outmaneuvered by the internationalist wing, led by Moderate Republican Senator [[Arthur Vandenberg]] of [[Michigan]]. The isolationists claimed that supporting the [[socialist]] post-war governments of Western Europe would not thwart the spread of international [[communism]], but Vandenberg said that the Marshall Plan would at the least stop economic chaos, sustain Western Civilization, and stop further Soviet expansion. Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] of [[Ohio]], a son of U.S. President [[William Howard Taft]] who lost three bids for the Republican presidential nomination, said that the Marshall Plan had no economic justification but was needed in the battle against communism. Ultimately, only seventeen senators voted against the Marshall Plan on March 13, 1948.<ref>John C. Campbell, ''The United States in World affairs: 1947-1948'' (1948) pp 500-505; quotes on pages 504, 505.</ref>
In the spring of 1950, Wherry joined Senator [[Lister Hill]], a progressive Democrat from [[Alabama]], in a congressional investigation of [[homosexual]]s in government, particularly the [[United States Department of State]]. Wherry argued that "only the most naïve could believe that the communists' [[fifth column]] in the United States would neglect to propagate and use homosexuals to gain their treacherous ends."<ref>{{cite web|author=Judith Adkins|title= 'These People Are Frightened to Death': Congressional Investigations and the Lavender Scare|year=2016 |volume= 48 |number=2|journal= Prologue|publisher=National Archives|url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2016/summer/lavender.html |ref=none}}</ref>
Wherry was part of a group of lawmakers and journalists who toured the [[Buchenwald]] concentration camp, which American forces had liberated on April 11, 1945, after the deaths of more than 56,000 people.T General [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] left rotting corpses on the ground so that the visiting party could grasp the extent of the atrocities.<ref>Marvin E. Stromer, "The Making of a Political Leader: Kenneth S. Wherry and the United States Senate," (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1969) p. 136–137.
==Death==
Wherry died at the age of fifty-nine a week after [[Thanksgiving Day]] 1951 at the George Washington University Hospital in [[Washington, D.C.]], while he was the Republican Minority Leader. He is interred at the Pawnee City Cemetery, along with his wife, the former Marjorie Colwel (1896-1990).<ref name=findagrave/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wherry, Kenneth}}
[[Category:Nebraska]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Attorneys]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Mayors]]
[[Category:State Senators]]
[[Category:Former United States Senators]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category:United States Army]]
[[Category:World War I]]
|name=Kenneth Spicer Wherry
|image=Kenneth Wherry of NE.jpg
|office=[[United States Senator]]<br>for [[Nebraska]]
|term_start=January 3, 1943
|term_end=November 29, 1951
|predecessor=[[George Norris]]
|successor4=Fred A. Seaton
|office2=4th Senate Minority Leader
|term_start2=January 3, 1949
|term_end2=November 29, 1951
|predecessor2=[[Alben W. Barkley]]
|successor2=[[Styles Bridges]]
|office3=Senate Republican Conference leader
|term_start3=January 3, 1949
|term_end3=November 29, 1951
|predecessor3=Wallace H. White, Jr.
|successor3=Styles Bridges
|office4=Senate Majority Whip]]
|leader4=Wallace H. White, Jr.
|term_start4=January 3, 1947
|term_end4=January 3, 1949
|predecessor4=[[Lister Hill]]
|successor4=Francis J. Myers]
|office5=Senate Minority Whip
|leader5=[[Charles McNary]]<br>Wallace H. White, Jr.]]
|term_start5=January 3, 1943
|term_end5=January 3, 1947
|predecessor5=Felix Hebert (1935)
|successor5=Scott W. Lucas
|birth_date=February 28, 1892
|birth_place=Liberty, Gage County<br>Nebraska
|death_date=November 29, 1951 (aged 59)
|death_place=[[Washington, D.C.]]
|resting_place=Pawnee City (Nebraska) Cemetery
|party=[[Republican Party|Republican]]
|alma_mater=[[University of Nebraska–Lincoln]] (BA)
|spouse=Marjorie Colwell Wherry (married 1920-1951, his death)
|children=Marilynn Wherry Latta<br>
One son, name unavailabler
|branch=[[United States Navy]]
|serviceyears=1917–1918
|unit=Commander, Naval Air Forces
|battles=[[World War I]]
}}
'''Kenneth Spicer Wherry''' (February 28, 1892 – November 29, 1951)<ref name=findagrave>Kenneth Spicer Wherry (1892-1951) - Find A Grave Memorial, accessed March 31, 2021.</ref> was an [[United States|American]] [[business]]man, [[attorney]], and [[United States Senator]] for his native [[Nebraska]];, with service from 1943 until his death in office. He was the Senate Minority Leader for his last two years in office.
==Background==
Wherry was born in the [[village]] of Liberty in Gage County in southeastern Nebraska, to David Emery Wherry (1862-1847) and the former Jessie Comstock (1864-1934).<ref name=nebraska>{{cite web|publisher=Nebraska State Historical Society|title=Kenneth S. Wherry|url=http://www.nebraskahistory.org/lib-arch/research/manuscripts/politics/wherry.htm|accessdate=March 31, 2021}}</ref> He received his early education at public schools in Pawnee City in Pawnee County, located south of Gage County. He graduated from the University of Nebraska in the capital city of [[Lincoln, Nebraska|Lincoln]].<ref name=nebraska/><ref name>=congress>{{cite web|publisher=''Biographical Directory of the United States Congress''|title=Wherry, Kenneth Spicer, (1892-1951)|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=W000344|accessdate=March 29, 2021}}</ref> From 1915 to 1916, he studied business administration at [[Harvard University]] in [[Cambridge]], [[Massachusetts]].<ref name=nebraska/> During [[World War I]], Wherry served in the [[United States Navy]] Flying Corps.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pawneecountyhistory.com/yesteryear/wherry.htm|publisher=Pawnee County History|title=Kenneth S. Wherry|accessdate=March 31, 2021}}}</ref>
==Career==
Following his military service, Wherry began a business career selling [[automobile]]s, [[furniture]], and [[livestock]]. He also studied law, was admitted to the bar, and engaged in private practice in Pawnee City. He was even a licensed undertaker in Nebraska and [[Kansas]].<ref name=nebraska/>. He was a member of the city council in Pawnee City from 1927 to 1929, the [[mayor]] of Pawnee City from 1929 to 1931 and, again, from 1938 to 1943. He was a state senator from 1929 to 1932. He ran unsuccessfully for [[governor]] of Nebraska in 1932; he finished a strong second in the [[primary]] , but victory went to the [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] Robert LeRoy "Roy" Cochran (1886-1963). He also lost in the primary for U.S. Senator in 1934, when victory went to the Democrat Edward Raymond Burke (1880-1968). In 1942, he upset [[progressive]] [[George Norris]], a supporter of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and the [[New Deal]], in the Republican primary.. He was the Nebraska Republican state chairman and from 1941 to 1942and the western director for the [[Republican National Committee]]. He was reelected to the Senate in 1948, when [[Moderate Republican]] [[Thomas E. Dewey]] carried the state though defeated nationally by [[Harry Truman]], who became something of a nemesis to Wherry. He was the Republican whip from 1944 to 1949 before he became minority leader for the last two years of his life. From 1939 to 1942, he served from 1939 to 1942 as the chairman of Special Committee on Problems of Small Business during what Truman called "the do nothing 80th Congress."<ref>1947 Harry S. Truman - "Do Nothing Congress," State of the Union History.</ref>
Senator Wherry was an [[isolationist]] and an iconoclast in foreign affairs and was one of the few defenders of the [[Germany|German]] people suffering in the postwar years from starvation. He joined six colleagues in opposition to the U.S. entry into the [[United Nations]] because he expected none of these organizations to benefit the American people. He opposed the [[Marshall Plan]], the [[Truman Doctrine]], and entry into the [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1204.html#article|title=UNO Bill Approved By Senate, 65 to 7, With One Change|publisher=''[[The New York Times]]''|date=December 4, 1945|accessdate=March 31, 2021}}</ref> With conservative Senator [[Homer Capehart]] of [[Indiana]], he supported building military family housing in the post-[[World War II]] era.<ref>Bernard Lemelin, "Isolationist Voices in the Truman Era: Nebraska Senators Hugh Butler and Kenneth Wherry." ''Great Plains Quarterly'' (Vol. 37; issue2) (2017), ppp. 83-109.</ref> He was the leader of the twenty conservative isolationists in the Senate. He was outmaneuvered by the internationalist wing, led by Moderate Republican Senator [[Arthur Vandenberg]] of [[Michigan]]. The isolationists claimed that supporting the [[socialist]] post-war governments of Western Europe would not thwart the spread of international [[communism]], but Vandenberg said that the Marshall Plan would at the least stop economic chaos, sustain Western Civilization, and stop further Soviet expansion. Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] of [[Ohio]], a son of U.S. President [[William Howard Taft]] who lost three bids for the Republican presidential nomination, said that the Marshall Plan had no economic justification but was needed in the battle against communism. Ultimately, only seventeen senators voted against the Marshall Plan on March 13, 1948.<ref>John C. Campbell, ''The United States in World affairs: 1947-1948'' (1948) pp 500-505; quotes on pages 504, 505.</ref>
In the spring of 1950, Wherry joined Senator [[Lister Hill]], a progressive Democrat from [[Alabama]], in a congressional investigation of [[homosexual]]s in government, particularly the [[United States Department of State]]. Wherry argued that "only the most naïve could believe that the communists' [[fifth column]] in the United States would neglect to propagate and use homosexuals to gain their treacherous ends."<ref>{{cite web|author=Judith Adkins|title= 'These People Are Frightened to Death': Congressional Investigations and the Lavender Scare|year=2016 |volume= 48 |number=2|journal= Prologue|publisher=National Archives|url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2016/summer/lavender.html |ref=none}}</ref>
Wherry was part of a group of lawmakers and journalists who toured the [[Buchenwald]] concentration camp, which American forces had liberated on April 11, 1945, after the deaths of more than 56,000 people.T General [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] left rotting corpses on the ground so that the visiting party could grasp the extent of the atrocities.<ref>Marvin E. Stromer, "The Making of a Political Leader: Kenneth S. Wherry and the United States Senate," (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1969) p. 136–137.
==Death==
Wherry died at the age of fifty-nine a week after [[Thanksgiving Day]] 1951 at the George Washington University Hospital in [[Washington, D.C.]], while he was the Republican Minority Leader. He is interred at the Pawnee City Cemetery, along with his wife, the former Marjorie Colwel (1896-1990).<ref name=findagrave/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wherry, Kenneth}}
[[Category:Nebraska]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Attorneys]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Mayors]]
[[Category:State Senators]]
[[Category:Former United States Senators]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category:United States Army]]
[[Category:World War I]]