John Y. Brown, Sr.

John Young Brown (February 1, 1900 – June 16, 1985) was an American attorney and politician. He was a state representative for nearly three decades, serving one term as speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives and as majority floor leader during the term of Governor Edward T. Breathitt. He was elected to one term in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1933, to January 3, 1935, to an at-large seat elected statewide on a general ticket. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Kentucky in 1939 and the unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate in 1946 and 1966. He was a member of the Democratic Party. Biography Brown was the son of tenant farmers Jesse C. and Lucy Keeper Brown, who named him after John Young Brown, a former governor and neighbor. He was born on a farm near Geiger Lake, Union County, Kentucky, attended Union County schools and graduated from the high school at Sturgis, Kentucky. He graduated from Centre College at Danville, Kentucky with an A.B. degree in 1921 where he was a member of Phi Kappa Tau fraternity and a "Scrub" player on the famous Centre Praying Colonels football team. He received his LL.B. degree from University of Kentucky College of Law in 1926 and was admitted to the bar that same year. He was a well-known trial lawyer who practiced law from 1926 to 1985 in Lexington, Kentucky, with three firms: Brown and Miller, Brown and Son, and Brown, Sledd and McCann. He was noted for his extensive quotation of the Bible from memory during his summations to juries.