Richard Merrill ATKINSON, Congress, TN (1894-1947)

ATKINSON Richard Merrill , a Representative from Tennessee; born in Nashville, Davidson County, Tenn., February 6, 1894; attended the public schools; was graduated from Wallace University School, Nashville, Tenn., in 1912, from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., in 1916, and from the law department of Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn., in 1917; was admitted to the bar in 1917 and commenced the practice of law in Nashville, Tenn., in 1920; during the First World War served from June 30, 1917, until honorably discharged on August 29, 1919, as a member of the Forty-seventh Company, United States Marines, Second Division, serving in France with the American Expeditionary Forces; attorney general of the tenth judicial circuit of Tennessee from September 1, 1926, to September 1, 1934; State commissioner of Smoky Mountain National Park 1931-1933; elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-fifth Congress (January 3, 1937-January 3, 1939); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1938; engaged in the practice of law in Nashville, Tenn., until his death there on April 29, 1947; interment in Spring Hill Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present