From: KyArchives [Archives@genrecords.org]
Sent: Sunday, February 20, 2005 8:33 AM
To: Ky-Footsteps
Subject: Siler.Eugene.1987.Whitley-Jefferson.OBIT


Eugene Siler December 5, 1987 
Whitley-Jefferson County KyArchives Obituaries

Newspaper clipping -  hand written "died Dec. 5, 1987"
Noted Statesman Siler dies at 87
   Former U.S. congressman Eugene Siler Sr. died Saturday in Louisville at age 87.
   The Williamsburg native represented Southeastern Kentucky from 1954 to 1964, bringing to Washington D.C. his staunch Baptist background, and independent thinking.
   Early in his congressional career Siler was noted as outspoken when he voted against fellow Republican President Eisenhower's decision to "fight if necessary" to defend Formosa.
   Siler defended his vote (which received support from only two other
representatives) by stating "I promised the mothers of my district I would cast no vote calculated to send their sons to foreign lands to fight another war in which we have no business as I see it."
   Before his stint in Congress, Siler served from 1945 to 1948.  Siler also ran for governor in 1951, but was defeated 346,345 to 288,014.
   Siler was well known for his strong Baptist beliefs, openly opposing the use of alcohol, profanity and cigarettes, and in his law practice never took cases involving alcohol and divorce.
   He served as moderator of the General Association of Baptists in 1952 and 1954, and was a deacon and Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Church of Williamsburg.
   United States Representative Harold Rogers lamented Siler's death before the House of Representatives Tuesday afternoon.
   "It is with great sadness that I inform the members of this body of the untimely death of Congressman Eugene Siler........He was a native of Williamsburg, Kentucky graduating from Cumberland College in 1920, later finishing his law degree from the University of Kentucky and Columbia University.
   "During the first World War, Siler served as an enlisted man in the United States Navy and was a captain in the Army in WWII.....
   "Congressman Siler was a revered figure in my district.  He was always known for his integrity; in fact he was a lay Baptist minister.  His perseverance and hard work on behalf of his people was well known."
   Siler retired in 1964, remaining in Williamsburg, until his death continuing to serve the people he loved and who loved him....
   "Congressman Gene Siler will be sorely missed by all of us in my district and in Kentucky and this nation who had the pleasure of working with him."
   Siler's survivors include his wife, Lowell Jones Siler; a son, Eugene Siler Jr., a U.S. District Court Judge, Williamsburg; three daughters, Dorothy White, Jonesboro, Ark., Annette Hungerford, Columbus, Ind., and Caroline  Browning of Louisville, a sister Lillian Venner, Newport, R.I.; seven grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.
   Services were held Monday at 2 p.m. at the First Baptist Church of Williamsburg.  Burial was at Highland Cemetery by Ellison Funeral Home, Williamsburg.  


Submitted by: Mary Lou Hudson http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00005.html#0001143



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