Robert Worth Bingham
Robert Bingham | |
|---|---|
Joseph P. Kennedy | |
| 33rd Mayor of Louisville | |
| In office July 1907 – December 1907 | |
| Preceded by | Paul C. Barth |
| Succeeded by | James F. Grinstead |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Robert Worth Bingham November 8, 1871 |
| Signature |  |
Robert Worth Bingham (November 8, 1871 – December 18, 1937) was a politician, judge, newspaper publisher and the
Background
Bingham attended the University of North Carolina and University of Virginia but did not graduate. He moved to Louisville in the 1890s and received a law degree from the University of Louisville in 1897. He formed his own practice with W.W. Davies.
Bingham married into a wealthy family in 1896. He became involved in Louisville politics as a registered Democrat, and was appointed interim mayor of the city in 1907 after election fraud invalidated the 1905 election.[8] His corruption-busting tactics in his 6-month term alienated him from the local political machine and the Democratic Party in general, and he chose not to run in the general election.
He ran unsuccessfully for the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1910 as a Republican, and as a Democrat for Fiscal Court in 1917. He was appointed to the Jefferson Circuit Court in 1911,[5] and was known as "Judge Bingham" for the rest of his life.
Controversial inheritance
Bingham's first wife Eleanor Miller died in 1913. She was a passenger with her children in a car driven by her brother. Accounts vary, but either the car was crossing railroad tracks and was hit by a speeding commuter train[9] or Eleanor jumped out of the car as it crossed the tracks. Her father Samuel Miller had committed suicide in this manner nineteen years earlier.[9] Her son Barry later said he could remember Eleanor pushing him out of her lap and jumping from the car.[10] She was survived by three children: Robert Norwood Bingham (his middle name was later changed to Worth, making him Robert Worth Bingham Jr), George Barry Bingham (better known as Barry Bingham Sr.), and Henrietta Worth Bingham.[11]
In 1916 Bingham married
Nevertheless, as Bingham inherited $5 million after her death, enabling him to purchase
Later career
Using the bequest from Flagler, Bingham purchased the Courier-Journal and Times in 1918.
Bingham married his third wife, Aleen Lithgow Hilliard, in 1924.
US Ambassador to the United Kingdom
A strong financial backer of
Other activities & death
He was a member of the
His daughter Henrietta Bingham was involved with the Bloomsbury Group, having affairs with the painter Dora Carrington and later with the sculptor Stephen Tomlin, who went on to marry Julia Strachey, niece of Lytton Strachey, the love of Carrington's life.[24]
Seriously ill, Bingham sailed back to the United States on November 19, 1937.
His family continued to dominate Louisville media for another half-century, mostly through his son, Barry Bingham Sr.
The SS Robert W. Bingham, a cargo ship in service from 1944 to 1959, was named for him.[1]
See also
Notes
- State Department, which reports that Bingham's mission terminated on November 19, 1937, with his departure from England.[7]This article uses the date supplied by the State Department, November 19, 1937, as his last day in office.
References
- ^ OCLC 36543342.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-671-79707-2.
- ^ OCLC 949985349.
- ^ "President Chooses Joseph P. Kennedy as Envoy to Britain; Bingham, Now at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Forced by Illness to Resign as Ambassador". The New York Times. December 9, 1937. p. 1. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
- ^ a b c "Robert W. Bingham, Ambassador, Dies; U. S. Envoy to Great Britain, 66, Succumbs to a Tumor of Rare Occurrence". The New York Times. December 19, 1937. p. 1. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
- ^ a b "Bingham is Buried With Simple Rites; Bishop EmeritusWoodcock and Envoy's Pastor Officiate in Notables' Presence". The New York Times. December 21, 1937. p. 23. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
- ^ "Robert Worth Bingham". history.state.gov. Retrieved June 15, 2018.
- ^ Campbell, Tracy (June 2006). "How to Steal an Election" (PDF). Kentucky Humanities. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 30, 2007.
- ^ a b Marie Brenner, House of Dreams: The Bingham Family of Louisville. Random House, 1988.
- ^ a b c Sallie Bingham, Passion and Prejudice. Knopf, 1989.
- ^ William Elliot Ellis, Robert Worth Bingham and the Southern Mystique, The Kent State University Press, 1997, pg. 53.
- ^ "Mrs. Flagler Weds Ex-Judge Bingham; Oil Millionaire's Widow Marries Ex-Mayor of Louisville, a Friend of Her Youth". The New York Times. November 16, 1911. p. 11. Retrieved December 23, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Mrs. Bingham Dies; Worth $60,000,000; Fortune of Former Widow of H. M. Flagler to Go to Her Niece, Mrs. Louise Wise Lewis. Wed Ex-Judge Nov. 16 Last Husband, an Ex-Mayor of Louisville, and Other Relatives to Receive Only $3,000,000 of Estate". The New York Times. July 28, 1917. p. 7. Retrieved December 23, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Augustus Mayhew, Fatal Fortunes: The Flagler-Kenan-Bingham Triangle. Review of Irrepressible: The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham, in New York Social Diary, September 4, 2015.
- ^ Emily Bingham's Irrepressible: The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham (Farrar Straus Giroux 2015), cites more documentation about Mary Lily's death, including evidence on both sides, although she believes Robert was innocent. According to her research, many people at the time -- including Theodore Roosevelt -- assumed Robert had murdered his wife and gotten away with it.
- ^ a b Duffy, James (January 10, 1988). "The Early Empire". The New York Times. p. 39. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
- ^ Thomas, Samuel W. (July 1989). "Let the Documents Speak: An Analysis of David Leon Chandler's Assessment of Robert Worth Bingham". Filson Club History Quarterly. 63.
- ^ "Watterson's Hot Shot as Paper is Sold". The New York Times. Louisville, Kentucky. August 7, 1918. p. 9. Retrieved December 23, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Bingham to Call on King; With Other Diplomats He Will Present Credentials to New Ruler". The New York Times. May 5, 1936. p. 3. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
- ^ "Bingham Invites British-U.S. Unity; Offers Assurance Roosevelt Can Make 'Binding, Lasting' Understandings Now. He Sees a 'New Situation' Ambassador Believes That the Two Nations, Cooperating, Could Bring Security. Bingham Invites British-U.S. Unity". The New York Times. London. December 2, 1934. p. 1. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
- ^ Selden, Charles A. (July 5, 1936). "Anglo-U.S. Accord for Peace is Urged; Bingham Warns of Woe to Any Who Consider Two Peoples 'Mere Supine Pacifists.' Ignorance is Deplored Prof. Mims Asks Why British Fail to Study Literature and History of United States". The New York Times. p. 23. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
- OCLC 900344482.
- ProQuest 303791009. Retrieved May 9, 2021.
- ^ Extended Review: The Letters of Lytton Strachey
- ^ "Bingham, Ill, Sails for U.S. Suddenly; Ambassador Will Remain Here for Medical Treatment--His Resignation Is Denied". The New York Times. November 20, 1937. p. 6. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
Further reading
- Chandler, David Leon (1989). Binghams of Louisville : The Dark History Behind One of America's Great Fortunes. New York: Crown. ISBN 0-517-56895-0.
- Ellis, William E. (1997). Robert Worth Bingham and the Southern Mystique: From the Old South to the New South and Beyond.
- Thomas, Samuel W. (1993). Barry Bingham: A Man of his Word.
- Ellis, William E. (January 1982). "Robert Worth Bingham and the Crisis of Cooperative Marketing in the Twenties". Agricultural History. 56: 99–116.
External links
- Works by or about Robert Worth Bingham at Internet Archive
- Newspaper clippings about Robert Worth Bingham in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
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