Buncombe Bob, won’t you please go home?

“The accomplishments of North Carolina’s Senator Robert (‘Buncombe Bob’) Rice Reynolds are varied. He has been married five times, sired four children, kissed the late Jean Harlow on the Capitol steps, and is the only U.S. Senator to shoot an enraged bull walrus at 20 feet.

“For 10 years he has been a labor-baiting, immigrant-hating demagogue, an implacable isolationist with Fascist trimmings and Fascist friends….. This week Senator Reynolds announced he would not run for re-election next year. No tears fell.”

— From Time magazine, Nov. 15, 1943

One thought on “Buncombe Bob, won’t you please go home?”

  1. Franklin Roosevelt recruited Congressman Franklin Wills Hancock, Jr. to run against Buncombe Bob in the late 30s, but Bob beat him. The Democratic party was still opposed to Buncombe Bob by the next election, and he decided not to run. He was replaced in the Senate by Clyde Hoey, the last senator to wear frock coat and wing collar.

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