Kerr traveled around the country to promote Oklahoma at his own expense. After the war, he called for increased spending to allow for post-war development of the state. Oklahoma became home to many wartime industries and was a training site for military personnel. During World War II, despite the tendency of Oklahomans to keep the federal government at arm's length, Kerr promoted ties to the government, knowing how important the jobs and activity were to create prosperity. In 1944 he was chosen to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, where he played a back-room role in the selection of Harry S. Not coincidentally, Kerr's boosterism also promoted his own political fortunes. Kerr traveled more than 400,000 miles to sell Oklahoma's products and potential throughout the nation. When not cultivating legislators, the governor prepared his state to weather postwar economic storms. For the first time in the state's history, executive-legislative relations remained cordial, largely due to Kerr's patient leadership. Kerr's four-year term as governor served as a turning point for Oklahoma's politics and economy. Kerr narrowly won the primary and went on to win by a small margin in the general election. Oklahoma's Democrats were divided over US President Franklin Roosevelt's policies, leading to a bitter campaign. Two years later he ran for the Democratic nomination for governor, campaigning as a supporter both of the New Deal and of a vigorous American role in World War II. In 1940, he was elected as Democratic national committeeman for Oklahoma. He worked to raise funds for both Governors E.W. Kerr's growing wealth and business ties made him a power in state Democratic politics during the 1930s. Kerr-McGee diversified into global drilling for petroleum and processed other fuels and minerals, including uranium and helium. McGee, former chief geologist for Phillips Petroleum, joined the firm, which changed its name inġ946 to Kerr-McGee Oil Industries, Incorporated. By 1929 the Anderson-Kerr Drilling Company had become so prosperous that Kerr abandoned his law practice to focus on oil. Kerr used his new family connections to enter the oil business with his brother-in-law, James L. The next year he married Grayce Breene, the youngest daughter of a wealthy Tulsa family. In 1924, his wife of more than four years, Reba Shelton, died in childbirth, along with his twin daughters. Kerr passed the bar exam in 1922, but a business failure the previous year had left him deeply in debt. He then returned to study law under an Ada judge. He never saw combat, but he used his active involvement in the Oklahoma National Guard and the American Legion to forward his business and political careers. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Kerr was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the army. He briefly studied law at the University of Oklahoma until poverty forced him to drop out in 1916. He later attended and graduated from East Central Normal School in Ada. He enrolled at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee as a junior in high school. Not only did his religious beliefs lead him to teach Sunday school and to shun alcohol throughout his adulthood, it also aided his political aspirations in a conservative state where Baptists were the single largest denomination. Kerr's upbringing as a Southern Baptist had a profound influence on his life. Kerr was born in a log cabin in Pontotoc County - near what is now Ada - in Indian Territory, the son of William Samuel Kerr, a farmer, clerk, and politician, and Margaret Eloda Wright. He was the first Oklahoma governor born in the territory of the state.Įarly life Kerr was born in this cabin near Ada, Oklahoma. Kerr worked natural resources, and his legacy includes water projects that link the Arkansas River via the Gulf of Mexico. He served as the 12th governor of Oklahoma from 1943 to 1947 and was elected three times to the United States Senate. Kerr formed a petroleum company before turning to politics. Robert Samuel Kerr (Septem– January 1, 1963) was an American businessman and politician from Oklahoma.
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