Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 3, 1994 TAG: 9408040026
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
According to a Smyth County Memorial Hospital spokesman, Jennings died shortly past 5 p.m. from injuries suffered when his tractor overturned.
Jennings was mowing the lawn behind the car dealership in Marion he had owned since 1946.
Jennings represented Southwest Virginia in Washington from 1955 to 1967. For eight years afterward he was clerk of the House. Later he was a lobbyist for coal slurry pipelines. He also was a member of Virginia Tech's Board of Visitors.
His son, G.C. Jennings, formerly represented Smyth County in the House of Delegates.
Jimmy Warren, Smyth County Circuit Court clerk, met Jennings after the future congressman returned from World War II as a decorated major. Warren was just a teen-ager when Jennings was elected sheriff of Smyth County two years later in 1946.
"He was the first Democrat elected to sheriff in maybe 40 years. He brought a lot of dignity to this area. It was the first time the sheriff wore a uniform. He wore this big hat. He was a very striking man."
Jennings ran unsuccessfully in 1952 for the Democratic congressional nomination against M.M. Long Sr. Long lost that election to William Wampler, who then lost to Jennings two years later.
Warren remembers Jennings as being well thought of and supported in the county.
"We had our Republican strongholds, but even so, he did well. He had a tremendous personality and knew everyone in the county by name. He would visit every area," Warren said.
Jennings spent six terms in the House of Representatives, and spent much of that time battling the conservative Harry F. Byrd machine that controlled Virginia's Democratic Party and state government.
"He was progressive in a time when progressives were not well-liked," said Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, D-Roanoke.
Jennings, along with state Del. Edgar Bacon and others in the liberal wing of the party, helped steer the Virginia Democratic Party in a new direction at its 1964 convention.
"We passed a resolution that said our party would support Democratic nominees from the bottom to the top - from the courthouse to the White House," Bacon recalls. Conservative members had refused to support any Democrat at the federal level since Franklin Roosevelt left office.
"Some of the older Virginians thought we should be thrown out," Bacon said.
In January 1967, after his old rival Wampler had unseated him in the 1966 election, Jennings was chosen to be clerk of the House of Representatives. He spent the next eight years as the chief administrative official in the House.
"It's the highest office you can achieve without being elected by the people," Woodrum said. "What made it more triumphant was that he was elected by his peers. That tells you what they thought of him."
"He was definitely Mr. Democrat," Warren said. "There was not a campaigning senator or congressman who passed through this area without recognizing the contributions Jennings made."
by CNB