Alben Barkley: College Janitor to Iron Man Vice President Under Truman

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Alben W. Barkley was born in 1877 in a log house in rural Kentucky to tenant farmers who grew tobacco and wheat. Named Willie Alben at birth, he later reversed it to Alben William. With no money for tuition, he worked as a janitor at a small Methodist college in exchange for classes, then clerked in Paducah to read law. Elected county attorney in 1905 after touring the county by horse and buggy, he audited the books, prosecuted corrupt magistrates, and replaced forced road labor with contracts. He entered the U.S. House in 1912, backed child labor bans and rural roads, and co-sponsored the Sheppard-Barkley Act banning alcohol sales in Washington, D.C.

His only lost election came in the 1923 Kentucky governor's primary, where speeches up to 16 a day earned him the name Iron Man. He won a Senate seat in 1926, became majority leader in 1937 by one vote after FDR's "My dear Alben" letter, and guided New Deal and Lend-Lease legislation. In 1948 Harry Truman made him vice president at 71, and he sat in cabinet and National Security Council meetings. Labor leaders called him too old to run for president in 1952, but in 1954, at 76, he won a Senate seat again. He died in 1956 after speaking at a mock convention at Washington and Lee University.

• His 1932 keynote suggested letting voters decide on repealing Prohibition, setting off a 45 minute demonstration.
• When Happy Chandler hinted in 1938 that his water had been poisoned, Barkley mockingly inspected and refused a water glass at every rally.
• Abuses by both campaigns in that 1938 primary led to the Hatch Act of 1939.
• To pay for his wife Dorothy's heart care, he gave paid lectures and sold their Washington house.
• He married Jane Rucker Hadley while in office, the only vice president to marry during his term.