William Madison Whittington

Whittington was bornin Little Springs, Mississippi.[1][2] He was the son of Margaret Isaphene McGehee and Alexander Madison Whittington, a farmer.[1][3]

He attended the public schools of Franklin County, Mississippi.[2] He attended Mississippi College at Clinton, graduating in 1898.[1][2] He then studied law at the University of Mississippi, graduating in 1899.[1][2] While at Mississippi, he was a member of St. Anthony Hall, also known as the Fraternity of Delta Psi.[4]

He was admitted to the bar in 1899. He moved to Roxie, Mississippi on January 1, 1901 where he was principal of a school and also started practicing law.[1][2][3] In Roxie, he was also a member of the board of aldermen.[3] In January 1904, he moved to Greenwood, Mississippi, where he continued the practice of law and also started cotton farming.[1][2] He became a local commissioner for Greenwood from January 1, 1907, to January 1, 1911.[1][2] In 1914, he started his own private law practice.[3]

He was elected to the Mississippi State Senate from the 27th District from January 1, 1916, to January 1, 1920.[2][5] He was reelected in 1923 for a four-year term and served from January 1 to August 16, 1924 when he resigned.[2] While with the legislature, he showed his prohibitionist leanings when he authored the state's first Bone Dry Law.[1]

In August 1924 he left the state legislature when he accepted the Democratic nomination for Representative in the United States Congress.[1][2] Due to Jim Crow laws, Whittington was elected to the House by just 4,000 people, despite living in a district of 435,000.[6]

After the Great Flood of 1927 Whittington authored and successfully forwarded the Flood Control Act of 1928.[1] He served on the Committee of Public Works; the Reclamation Committee, Roads Committee, and Expenditures Committee in the Executive Department; and the Flood Control Committee which is chaired in 1936 and for the next twelve years.[1][2][3][7] Virtually all legislation on flood control between 1928 and 1951 was authored by Whittington.[3]

In 1940 and, again, in 1941, Whittington wanted to run for the United States Senate, but was talked out of it by friends.[1] He retired in 1951 and returned to Greenwood where he practiced law with his son Whittington Jr.[1][3] He served in Congress for more than 25 years.[1]

He served as delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1920, 1928, 1936, 1940, and 1948.[2] He was a member of the American Bar Association, the Lefore County Bar Association, and the Mississippi State Bar Association.[7]

• His papers are archived at the University of Mississippi.[1]
• Whittington Hall at Mississippi College was named in his honor.[7]
• He was named Alumni of the Year at Mississippi College.[7]
• Mississippi College gave Whittington an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.[7]
• Whittington Park in Greenwood, Mississippi is named in his honor.[7]

Whittington married Lena May McGehee on September 7, 1904.[1] They had no children and she died in September 1907.[1] He married Anna Ward Aven of Clinton, Mississippi on July 20, 1910.[1][7] She was the first female to graduate from Mississippi College where her father was the president.[1][7] Their children were Charles Aven Whittington, Mary Whittington, and William Madison Whittington Jr.[1]

He taught Sunday school at the Baptist Church and became president of the Mississippi State Baptist Convention in 1910.[1][7] He was also a member of the Elks, the Kiwanis Club, the Shriners, and was a 33rd degree Mason.[1][7] The Whittingtons gave the Avon Fine Arts Building to Mississippi College.[7] In Greenwood, he donated 40 acres for park and built a pavilion there; it was named Whittinton Park.[7]

In his later years, Whittington lost most of his eyesight and could not climb stairs.[1] In 1962, he died at his home in Greenwood at the age of 84.[1][3] He was buried in Odd Fellows Cemetery.[2]