Thomas Anderson

Thomas Jefferson Anderson (10 November 1910 – 30 August 2002) was an American officer, author, journalist, and farmer. He was the American Independent Party vice presidential nominee under John G. Schmitz in 1972 and the American Party presidential nominee in 1976. He a member of the John Birch Society and headed the organization We the People. He was associated with Liberty Lobby. He was the publisher of Straight Talk (1955-1968).

Life

Thomas Jefferson Anderson was born in Nashville, Tennessee; the second of five children of William Joseph and Nancy Lou Anderson. After graduating from Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Anderson attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in economics in 1934. At Vanderbilt he excelled in athletics, earning varsity letters as a member of both the varsity tennis and track teams. He was business editor of the school's yearbook, The Commodore, and served on the student newspaper staff. Anderson was elected president of his fraternity, Phi Delta Theta.

In 1936, he married the former Carolyn Montague Jennings of Franklin, Tennessee. Miss Jennings, also a graduate of Vanderbilt University, was elected "Miss Vanderbilt" during her senior year.

After graduation, he sold securities for several Nashville-based brokerage firms, including J. C. Bradford & Company, and also worked as an ad-salesman for the Southern Agriculturist. He was a veteran of World War II, having served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy.

In 1947, Anderson purchased The Arkansas Farmer, the first of sixteen regional farm magazines he acquired and operated as part of Nashville-based Southern Unit Publications, Inc. Additionally, he became publisher and editor of The Farm and Ranch Magazine, a nationally circulated monthly publication based in Dallas, Texas. Anderson was the supervising editor and author of the column Straight Talk which appeared in the magazines and was reprinted in more than 375 newspapers. In 1957, a series of the columns was reprinted in a book, also titled Straight Talk. He later produced a weekly radio program of the same name. He spent much of his life as a speaker, publisher and writer, crusading for conservative causes. He won numerous patriotic awards including the Liberty Award of the Congress of Freedom and the Freedom Award of Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

In 1972, he was the American Independent Party vice presidential nominee, appearing on the ticket with U.S. Representative John G. Schmitz, a former Republican from California. The duo finished third in the popular vote with 1,100,868 votes. In 1976, he was the American Party's presidential nominee on a ticket with Rufus Shackleford. They finished sixth in the general election with 158,724 votes.[2] The campaign received its best results in Virginia, where Anderson-Shackleford received 16,686 votes. The ticket also finished third in three states: Kentucky, North Dakota and Indiana.

In 1978, Anderson ran as the American Party-endorsed candidate for the U.S. Senate seat in Tennessee, but victory went to Republican Howard Baker, Jr. who won his third and final term in the chamber. He appeared on the ballot as an independent due to state law, which requires a minimal number of signatures to appear as an independent but requires a full party petition consisting of tens of thousands of signatures to appear on the ballot with a party label. Anderson received 45,908 votes.

Anderson was a past president of the American Agricultural Editors Association. He and his wife were two of thirteen charter members of St. Paul's Southern Methodist Church in Nashville.

Death

Anderson died on 30 August 2002, in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is interred at the Mount Hope Cemetery in Franklin, in Williamson County, Tennessee.

Bibliography

• Straight Talk: the Wit and Wisdom of Tom Anderson (1957)
• Silence Is Not Golden — It's Yellow (1973)
• Drink deeply from the fountain of knowledge. Don't just stand there and gargle. (1970)