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"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource."
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Butcher, Jacob Franklin "Jake"
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| Affiliation | Democratic |
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| Name | Jacob Franklin "Jake" Butcher |
| Address |
Oak Ridge, Tennessee , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
00, 1936
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| Died | July 19, 2017
(81 years)
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| Contributor | Not in Public Domain |
| Last Modifed | RP
Jul 19, 2017 02:46pm |
| Tags |
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| Info | Jake Butcher was a major figure in Tennessee banking and politics in the 1970s and early 1980s and the driving force behind the Knoxville International Energy Exposition (Knoxville World's Fair) of 1982. He also was the subject of a banking investigation and was convicted of bank fraud and imprisoned between 1985 and 1992.
Born in Dotson's Creek in Union County in 1936, Butcher was the son of Cecil H. Butcher Sr., a general store owner and organizer and president of the Union County Bank of Maynardville. Butcher attended the University of Tennessee and Hiwassee College and served one enlistment in the U.S. Marine Corps. He founded the Bull Run Oil Company, an Amoco distributorship, and engaged in commercial farming. On New Year's Eve 1961 he met up-and-coming movie star Sonya Wilde on a blind date, and the couple married in 1962.
Butcher's interest in banking dated from his youth and work in his father's bank. In 1968 he and his younger brother Cecil H. Butcher Jr. began acquiring banks, borrowing large amounts of capital to finance their purchases of bank stock. By 1974 the brothers controlled eight banks in Tennessee along with other business properties. In that year Jake Butcher used borrowed capital to purchase stock in Hamilton National Bank, Knoxville's largest banking institution, with 39 percent of the city's total banking reserves. After a brief takeover fight he won complete control and changed the bank's name to United American Bank. By 1982 the United American Bank accounted for over half of the business loans in Knoxville. In that year Jake Butcher declared a net worth of approximately $34 million.
As the Butcher brothers continued to acquire banks and other businesses, Jake developed a keen interest in politics. After failing to win the Democratic Party's gubernatorial nomination in 1974, he won the nomination in 1978, only to lose in the general election to Republican Lamar Alexander. At the same time, he was instrumental in bringing the Knoxville International Energy Exposition to Knoxville in 1982, and was considering a third run for the governorship.
Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture [Link] |
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