Frank Goad Clement

Clement reached the governor's office at thirty-two, the state's youngest, and served ten years, the longest of any twentieth-century governor. He was the first Southern governor to veto a segregation bill, and in 1956 he sent the National Guard to disperse a crowd trying to stop integration at Clinton High School. His rise rested on rousing speeches, and his 1956 keynote address to the Democratic National Convention has been called both one of the best and one of the worst of the television era. He died in a car accident in 1969.

What the plaque says

Frank Goad Clement Born on this site, June 1920, Clement spent his childhood in Dickson. Famous as an orator, he was three times elected Governor of Tennessee, for a two-year term in 1952 and for four-year terms in 1954 and 1962. Among the programs inaugurated during his tenure were the organization of the Department of Mental Health, creation of the state's first speech and hearing center, beginning of a long-range highway construction project, and the providing of free textbooks for school children.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Gordon House and Ferry Site — 26 mi
  A brick house of 1818 beside the Duck River at milepost 407.7 of the Natchez Trace Parkway, where a Chickasaw partner and a Tennessee captain ran a ferry and an inn.

More markers nearby

• James Worley — 2.4 mi
• The Old Log House — 5.5 mi
• McNairy's Attack — 7.0 mi
• Irish Shanty — 7.2 mi