- Item
- 1944-02-11
Part of Richards Studio Photographs
Portrait of Wendell Willkie, 1940 Republican Presidential nominee and titular head of the party, at the office of the Tacoma Times newspaper. Mr. Willkie was in Tacoma to address Pierce County Republican Club's 1944 Lincoln Day dinner at the Masonic Temple. The dinner itself was sold-out but his supporters were able to obtain tickets to listen to him give the main address. Mr. Willkie, an attorney and utilities executive, was originally from Indiana. Although he lost the 1940 election to Franklin D. Roosevelt by a wide margin in electoral votes, the difference in popular votes was quite slim, only five million separating the two. He once again sought the Republican nomination in 1944 but his more liberal views failed to win him the support of his party. He apparently did not endorse the eventual Republican nominee, Thomas Dewey. Wendell Willkie died later in 1944, on October 6, at the age of 52 of heart failure. (T.Times, 2-12-44, p. 1)
Willkie, Wendell, 1892-1944;