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Higher Office(s) Served: Senator

Military Service: Army

War(s) Served:  World War I

LESTER CALLOWAY HUNT was born in Isabel, Illinois. He graduated from the St. Louis University College of Dentistry and opened a dental practice in Lander, Wyoming, where he had been a pitcher for the town baseball team during the summer months. He served for nearly two years in the Army Dental Corps, attaining the rank of Major. After doing graduate work at Northwestern University, he was elected to the Wyoming legislature in 1932, and then to the post of Secretary State for two terms. He was the first Democratic governor in the state to win two consecutive terms. During his governorship, Hunt focused on state sovereignty over federal control, opposing the creation of a national park in Jackson Hole. He also secured legislative authorization to establish Wyoming's junior colleges. During his second term, he chaired the National Governors Association (then called the Governors' Conference). Before completing his term, however, he won a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1948, serving on the Armed Services Committee as well as on the Kefauver Committee investigating organized crime. Although he announced that he would seek a second term in the Senate, he withdrew from the campaign for health reasons and committed suicide on June 19, 1954.

Sources:

The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vols. 43 and G. New York: James T. White & Company.

Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978, Vol. 4. Westport, CT: Meckler Books, 1978. 4 vols.

Wyoming State Archives