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Created page with "{{Infobox officeholder |name=Tandy Duncan Little, Jr. |office=Alabama State Representative<br> from Montgomery |term_start=1962 |term_end=1966 |party=Republican Part..."
{{Infobox officeholder
|name=Tandy Duncan Little, Jr.
|office=[[Alabama]] State Representative<br> from [[Montgomery]]
|term_start=1962
|term_end=1966
|party=[[Republican Party|Republican]]
|birth_place=Montgomery, Alabama
|birth_date=July 22, 1921
|death_date=July 11, 2015 (aged 93)
|death_place=Sanibel, Lee County, [[Florida]]
|resting_place=Fort Myers Memorial Gardens
|residence=Fort Myers, Florida
|spouse=Virginia Ruth Blair Little (married 1943-2013, her death)
|children=Linda Little<br>
Tandy D. Little, III<br>
Donald Blair Little (1954-2012)<br>
Ann Little<br>
Two grandchildren<br>
'''Parents''':<br>
Tandy, Sr., and Lula Duncan Little
|alma_mater=Sidney Lanier High School<br>
[[Auburn University]]
|occupation=[[Real estate]] developer
|religion=[[Presbyterian]]
|branch=[[United States Army]] Air Forces
|battles=[[World War II]]
|rank=[[Lieutenant]]}}
'''Tandy Duncan Little, Jr.''' (born July 22, 1921 – July 11, 2015), was a [[Republican Party|Republican]] former state representative from the capital city of [[Montgomery]], [[Alabama]], who held his seat for one term from 1962 to 1966.<ref name=alaleg>{{cite web|url=http://www.legislature.state.al.us/misc/history/house_roster.mht|title=Roster: House of Representatives (Beginning January 1922)|publisher=legislature.state.al.us|accessdate=May 29, 2014; no longer accessible on-line}}</ref>
==Background==
Reared in Montgomery, Little graduated from Sidney Lanier High School there, and he received a degree in electrical engineering from [[Auburn University]] in Auburn, Alabama.<ref name=findagrave>Tandy D. Little (1921-2015) - Find A Grave Memorial, accessed August 30, 2021.</ref>
During [[World War II]], Little was a [[lieutenant]] in the [[United States Army]] Air Forces.<ref name=wifesobit/> After the war, he joined the family business, Little Electric Company and subsequently branched into [[real estate]] development in Montgomery.<ref name=findagrave/>
He was among the founding members of the Dixie Sailing Club<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dixiesailingclub.com/|title=Dixie Sailing Club|publisher=dixiesailingclub.com|accessdate=August 30, 2021}}</ref> on Lake Martin, a reservoir formed by the construction of Martin Dam on the Tallapoosa River near Montgomery. The lake encompasses three counties, Tallapoosa, Elmore, and Coosa.<ref name=wifesobit/> Little retired to [[Florida]], where he died at the age of ninety-three.
==Political life==
In 1962, Little was one of three Republicans elected to the Alabama House, when fellow Republican businessman James Douglas Martin (1918-2017) of Gadsden nearly upset the veteran [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[U.S. Senator]] [[Lister Hill]] of Montgomery. In that same election, the Republicans did not offer an opponent to [[George Wallace|George C. Wallace]], the Democrat who for a time became synonymous with the desire to preserve [[segregation]] in the American South. The two other Republicans elected with Little to single terms in the House were Donald Lamar Collins (1929-1993) of Jefferson County, and John Andrew Posey, Jr. (1923-1972), of Winston County, in northern Alabama.<ref name=alaleg/> Two years later, Little and his wife, the former Virginia Ruth Blair (1921-2013), a Montgomery native and a graduate of [[Auburn University]],<ref name=wifesobit>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/montgomeryadvertiser/obituary.aspx?pid=165937706|title=Ruth Little obituary|publisher=''The Montgomery Advertiser''|accessdate=May 29, 2014}}</ref> were delegates to the 1964 [[Republican National Convention]], which met in [[San Francisco]], [[California]], to nominate the [[Barry Goldwater|Goldwater]]-[[William E. Miller|Miller]] ticket,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/little.html|title=Little, Tandy, Jr.|publisher=The Political Graveyard|accessdate=May 29, 2014}}</ref> the first Republican slate to win the [[electoral vote]]s of Alabama since [[Reconstruction]].
In 1965, Little and another Republican representative from Montgomery, [[Alfred Goldthwaite]], who had defected the previous year from the Democrats, fought George Wallace's move to permit governors to succeed themselves, a change finally adopted for the 1974 election.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=-i1HBMC6qsEC&pg=PA136&lpg=PA136|author=Jeff Frederick|title= Stand Up for Alabama: Governor George Wallace|publisher=[[University of Alabama]] Press |date=2007 |page=119|isbn=9780817315740|accessdate=August 30, 2021}}</ref>
Little, Collins, Posey, and Goldthwaite all left the legislature in 1966, when James D. Martin, by then a one-term member of the [[United States House of Representatives]] from [[Alabama's 7th congressional district]], since disbanded, lost badly in the race for [[governor]]. Martin was defeated by Lurleen Wallace, and the Republican [[John Grenier]] of [[Birmingham, Alabama|Birmingham]] similarly failed to unseat Democratic U.S. Senator [[John Sparkman]] in a high-profile race. The defeats of Martin and Grenier set back the Republican attempt to gain a permanent foothold in Alabama after nearly a century of one-party Democratic hegemony. ''The Montgomery Advertiser'' described the state party's bleak prospects: "The flimsy house that Barry [Goldwater] built collapsed except for a few boards here and there. ... The Republicans have little more than the bare foundations of a party."<ref>Billy Hathorn, "A Dozen Years in the Political Wilderness: The Alabama Republican Party, 1966–1978", ''Gulf Coast Historical Review,'' Vol. 9, No. 2 (Spring 1994), p. 29.</ref>
In 1968, Little was the party finance chairman when the state [[Republican Party (United States)|GOP]] failed to mount a serious effort on behalf of the [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]]-[[Spiro Agnew|Agnew]] ticket, which had no chance in Alabama against George Wallace's presidential candidacy under his American Independent Party. Nor could Perry Oliver Hooper, Sr. (1925-2016), of Montgomery gain momentum in his race for the U.S. Senate seat that Lister Hill vacated, a position won overwhelmingly by [[James B. Allen]] of Gadsden, a former two-term lieutenant governor. Of the lack of a Nixon campaign in Alabama, Little said, "We couldn't afford it" because of the decision to concentrate on the successful third-term bids of three Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Alabama, all first elected in the Goldwater sweep of the state in 1964: [[Jack Edwards]] of [[Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]] and William Louis "Bill" Dickinson (1925-2008) of Montgomery, both conservatives, and John Hall Buchanan, Jr. (1928-2018), a [[Moderate Republican from [[Birmingham, Alabama|Birmingham]]. For years no matter how poorly the state GOP fared, Alabama still had the three Republican U.S. representatives who gained footholds in their districts.<ref>"A Dozen Years in the Political Wilderness: The Alabama Republican Party, 1966–1978," p. 30</ref>
==Later years==
In their later years, the Littles moved to the Shell Point Retirement Community in Fort Myers, Florida, where Mrs. Little, the former Virginia Ruth Blair (1922-2013), known as "Teenie," died at the age of ninety-one. The couple had four children, three surviving: Linda Little of Lumberton, [[North Carolina]], Tandy Little, III, known as Duncan Little, of Seabrook, [[Texas]], and Ann Little of [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref name=wifesobit/>
Another son, Donald Blair Little (1954-2012), was an [[attorney]] in Montgomery, who ran unsuccessfully, 61-33 percent, in the Republican [[primary]] election]] in 1998 against incumbent [[Perry O. Hooper, Jr.]], for the District 73 seat in the Alabama House.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=218648|title=AL House 073 - R Primary|publisher=ourcampaigns.com|accessdate=May 29, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/candidate.phtml?c=1123|title=Little, Don B.|publisher=followthemoney.org|accessdate=May 29, 2014}}</ref> Hooper's father was the 1968 U.S. Senate nominee and later the first Republican to serve as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.archives.state.al.us/judicial/hooper.html|title=ALABAMA'S SUPREME COURT CHIEF JUSTICES: Perry O. Hooper, Sr.|publisher=archives.state.al.us|accessdate=August 30, 2021}}</ref>
The two Little grandchildren are Tandy Little, IV, of [[Tampa]], Florida, and Laura Blair Little, of Clarksville, [[Tennessee]].<ref name=wifesobit/>
Tandy and Virginia Ruth Little were [[Presbyterian]]s. They are interred at Fort Myers Memorial Gardens.<ref name=findagrave/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Little, Tandy}}
[[Category:Alabama]]
[[Category:Florida]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:State Representatives]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category:United States Army]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Presbyterians]]
|name=Tandy Duncan Little, Jr.
|office=[[Alabama]] State Representative<br> from [[Montgomery]]
|term_start=1962
|term_end=1966
|party=[[Republican Party|Republican]]
|birth_place=Montgomery, Alabama
|birth_date=July 22, 1921
|death_date=July 11, 2015 (aged 93)
|death_place=Sanibel, Lee County, [[Florida]]
|resting_place=Fort Myers Memorial Gardens
|residence=Fort Myers, Florida
|spouse=Virginia Ruth Blair Little (married 1943-2013, her death)
|children=Linda Little<br>
Tandy D. Little, III<br>
Donald Blair Little (1954-2012)<br>
Ann Little<br>
Two grandchildren<br>
'''Parents''':<br>
Tandy, Sr., and Lula Duncan Little
|alma_mater=Sidney Lanier High School<br>
[[Auburn University]]
|occupation=[[Real estate]] developer
|religion=[[Presbyterian]]
|branch=[[United States Army]] Air Forces
|battles=[[World War II]]
|rank=[[Lieutenant]]}}
'''Tandy Duncan Little, Jr.''' (born July 22, 1921 – July 11, 2015), was a [[Republican Party|Republican]] former state representative from the capital city of [[Montgomery]], [[Alabama]], who held his seat for one term from 1962 to 1966.<ref name=alaleg>{{cite web|url=http://www.legislature.state.al.us/misc/history/house_roster.mht|title=Roster: House of Representatives (Beginning January 1922)|publisher=legislature.state.al.us|accessdate=May 29, 2014; no longer accessible on-line}}</ref>
==Background==
Reared in Montgomery, Little graduated from Sidney Lanier High School there, and he received a degree in electrical engineering from [[Auburn University]] in Auburn, Alabama.<ref name=findagrave>Tandy D. Little (1921-2015) - Find A Grave Memorial, accessed August 30, 2021.</ref>
During [[World War II]], Little was a [[lieutenant]] in the [[United States Army]] Air Forces.<ref name=wifesobit/> After the war, he joined the family business, Little Electric Company and subsequently branched into [[real estate]] development in Montgomery.<ref name=findagrave/>
He was among the founding members of the Dixie Sailing Club<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dixiesailingclub.com/|title=Dixie Sailing Club|publisher=dixiesailingclub.com|accessdate=August 30, 2021}}</ref> on Lake Martin, a reservoir formed by the construction of Martin Dam on the Tallapoosa River near Montgomery. The lake encompasses three counties, Tallapoosa, Elmore, and Coosa.<ref name=wifesobit/> Little retired to [[Florida]], where he died at the age of ninety-three.
==Political life==
In 1962, Little was one of three Republicans elected to the Alabama House, when fellow Republican businessman James Douglas Martin (1918-2017) of Gadsden nearly upset the veteran [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[U.S. Senator]] [[Lister Hill]] of Montgomery. In that same election, the Republicans did not offer an opponent to [[George Wallace|George C. Wallace]], the Democrat who for a time became synonymous with the desire to preserve [[segregation]] in the American South. The two other Republicans elected with Little to single terms in the House were Donald Lamar Collins (1929-1993) of Jefferson County, and John Andrew Posey, Jr. (1923-1972), of Winston County, in northern Alabama.<ref name=alaleg/> Two years later, Little and his wife, the former Virginia Ruth Blair (1921-2013), a Montgomery native and a graduate of [[Auburn University]],<ref name=wifesobit>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/montgomeryadvertiser/obituary.aspx?pid=165937706|title=Ruth Little obituary|publisher=''The Montgomery Advertiser''|accessdate=May 29, 2014}}</ref> were delegates to the 1964 [[Republican National Convention]], which met in [[San Francisco]], [[California]], to nominate the [[Barry Goldwater|Goldwater]]-[[William E. Miller|Miller]] ticket,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/little.html|title=Little, Tandy, Jr.|publisher=The Political Graveyard|accessdate=May 29, 2014}}</ref> the first Republican slate to win the [[electoral vote]]s of Alabama since [[Reconstruction]].
In 1965, Little and another Republican representative from Montgomery, [[Alfred Goldthwaite]], who had defected the previous year from the Democrats, fought George Wallace's move to permit governors to succeed themselves, a change finally adopted for the 1974 election.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=-i1HBMC6qsEC&pg=PA136&lpg=PA136|author=Jeff Frederick|title= Stand Up for Alabama: Governor George Wallace|publisher=[[University of Alabama]] Press |date=2007 |page=119|isbn=9780817315740|accessdate=August 30, 2021}}</ref>
Little, Collins, Posey, and Goldthwaite all left the legislature in 1966, when James D. Martin, by then a one-term member of the [[United States House of Representatives]] from [[Alabama's 7th congressional district]], since disbanded, lost badly in the race for [[governor]]. Martin was defeated by Lurleen Wallace, and the Republican [[John Grenier]] of [[Birmingham, Alabama|Birmingham]] similarly failed to unseat Democratic U.S. Senator [[John Sparkman]] in a high-profile race. The defeats of Martin and Grenier set back the Republican attempt to gain a permanent foothold in Alabama after nearly a century of one-party Democratic hegemony. ''The Montgomery Advertiser'' described the state party's bleak prospects: "The flimsy house that Barry [Goldwater] built collapsed except for a few boards here and there. ... The Republicans have little more than the bare foundations of a party."<ref>Billy Hathorn, "A Dozen Years in the Political Wilderness: The Alabama Republican Party, 1966–1978", ''Gulf Coast Historical Review,'' Vol. 9, No. 2 (Spring 1994), p. 29.</ref>
In 1968, Little was the party finance chairman when the state [[Republican Party (United States)|GOP]] failed to mount a serious effort on behalf of the [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]]-[[Spiro Agnew|Agnew]] ticket, which had no chance in Alabama against George Wallace's presidential candidacy under his American Independent Party. Nor could Perry Oliver Hooper, Sr. (1925-2016), of Montgomery gain momentum in his race for the U.S. Senate seat that Lister Hill vacated, a position won overwhelmingly by [[James B. Allen]] of Gadsden, a former two-term lieutenant governor. Of the lack of a Nixon campaign in Alabama, Little said, "We couldn't afford it" because of the decision to concentrate on the successful third-term bids of three Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Alabama, all first elected in the Goldwater sweep of the state in 1964: [[Jack Edwards]] of [[Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]] and William Louis "Bill" Dickinson (1925-2008) of Montgomery, both conservatives, and John Hall Buchanan, Jr. (1928-2018), a [[Moderate Republican from [[Birmingham, Alabama|Birmingham]]. For years no matter how poorly the state GOP fared, Alabama still had the three Republican U.S. representatives who gained footholds in their districts.<ref>"A Dozen Years in the Political Wilderness: The Alabama Republican Party, 1966–1978," p. 30</ref>
==Later years==
In their later years, the Littles moved to the Shell Point Retirement Community in Fort Myers, Florida, where Mrs. Little, the former Virginia Ruth Blair (1922-2013), known as "Teenie," died at the age of ninety-one. The couple had four children, three surviving: Linda Little of Lumberton, [[North Carolina]], Tandy Little, III, known as Duncan Little, of Seabrook, [[Texas]], and Ann Little of [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref name=wifesobit/>
Another son, Donald Blair Little (1954-2012), was an [[attorney]] in Montgomery, who ran unsuccessfully, 61-33 percent, in the Republican [[primary]] election]] in 1998 against incumbent [[Perry O. Hooper, Jr.]], for the District 73 seat in the Alabama House.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=218648|title=AL House 073 - R Primary|publisher=ourcampaigns.com|accessdate=May 29, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/candidate.phtml?c=1123|title=Little, Don B.|publisher=followthemoney.org|accessdate=May 29, 2014}}</ref> Hooper's father was the 1968 U.S. Senate nominee and later the first Republican to serve as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.archives.state.al.us/judicial/hooper.html|title=ALABAMA'S SUPREME COURT CHIEF JUSTICES: Perry O. Hooper, Sr.|publisher=archives.state.al.us|accessdate=August 30, 2021}}</ref>
The two Little grandchildren are Tandy Little, IV, of [[Tampa]], Florida, and Laura Blair Little, of Clarksville, [[Tennessee]].<ref name=wifesobit/>
Tandy and Virginia Ruth Little were [[Presbyterian]]s. They are interred at Fort Myers Memorial Gardens.<ref name=findagrave/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Little, Tandy}}
[[Category:Alabama]]
[[Category:Florida]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:State Representatives]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category:United States Army]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Presbyterians]]