Menalcus Lankford (1883-1937)

From the Harrisonburg Daily New Record.

   The bespectacled man pictured is Virginia Congressman Menalcus Lankford, certainly one of the more oddly named 20th century U.S. Representatives you'll read about here on the site. I first discovered the name of this obscure politician in 2001, courtesy of the politicalgraveyard website. Since locating his name over a decade ago Lankford's apparent facelessness became the stuff of legend, with no portrait of the man coming to light in all that time. You'd figure that an individual of Lankford's stature would have at least one picture of himself pop up in some form, but sadly this wasn't the case! I eventually gave up hope that I'd see a picture of Lankford, and decided that he may have been camera shy, hence why I hadn't located any pictures of him yet.

   With that being said, I'm pleased to announce that during a furtive search on the newspaperarchive website (mentioned in this site's introduction), a picture of Mr. Lankford has finally been located, courtesy of the Harrisonburg Daily News Record! This rare portrait of him appeared in his obituary in the above-mentioned newspaper on December 28, 1937, and with that introduction, we'll now take a look at the life of this now obscure Virginia politician.

   Born on March 14, 1883, near Franklin, Virginia, Menalcus Lankford was one of four sons born to Dr. Livius and Mary Conway Burnley Lankford. The name "Menalcus" has its origins in Greek mythology and is also spelled "Menalcas". Its meaning is given as one who is "strong, firm, resolute" and was featured in an ancient work by the Greek poet Virgil called the Eclogues. Known by family and contemporaries as "Mack", Menalcus Lankford attended Norfolk High School and later went on to study at the University of Richmond, graduating in the class of 1904. He continued his education at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, earning his bachelor of laws degree in 1906. 

   Lankford was admitted to the Virginia Bar in the same year as his graduation and soon after opened a law practice in the city of Norfolk. In 1909 he married Richmond native Nancy Garland Waddill (1886-1963), and the couple is recorded as being childless. Lankford put his career in law on hold in 1917 when he became an ensign in the aviation service in the U.S. Navy. He served in the Navy throughout American involvement in World War I and at the war's conclusion returned to his law practice in Virginia.

   In 1920 Lankford made the jump into politics, mounting a campaign for Congress. He would lose that election to incumbent Republican Joseph Deal by a vote of 15, 318 to 5, 389. Another candidacy for a Congressional seat in 1924 met with similar results, but in 1928 the political tide turned in favor of Lankford, and in November of that year he won election to Congress, defeating Joseph Deal by nearly 4,000 votes. An article mentioning Lankford's election to the house appeared in the 1929 edition of the San Jose News and also makes light of the coincidence that two men with the last name "Lankford" were then serving as a U.S. Representative (the other being seven-term Georgia congressman William Chester Lankford). In this article, attention is given to Menalcus' odd first name, and the congressman himself is recorded as saying that as far as legislation was concerned, "I'm more in favor of putting more joy into people's lives than taking more out. The more we let people alone the better off we'll be."

   Within months of taking his seat, Lankford made headlines in Virginia newspapers when he proposed a novel solution to aid state produce growers. In his farm relief plan, Lankford proposed the construction of "government canneries and central storage houses" as a "means of handling farm surpluses." In a Richmond Times-Dispatch interview on his idea, Lankford noted that he and a delegation of Norfolk citizens aimed to present the plan to Secretary of Agriculture Arthur Mastick Hyde, noting:

"This would offer a real solution, I believe, to the problem to disposing of the surplus from Virginia farms. Since the chief object of the special session of Congress is to provide some means of handling farm surpluses, I think this is a highly worthy plan to present at this time. This plan would keep Virginia money back home where it belongs. It would eliminate the chances of loss for truck farmers through dishonest dealing by commission merchants, would cut the heavy freight charges no necessary to reach the markets, and would give an effective means of handling the surplus crops of the State."

                                                   From a 1929 edition of the San Jose News.

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 10, 1935.

   Lankford was re-elected to Congress in November 1930 (again defeating Joseph Deal) and was unsuccessful in his bid for a third term in November 1932. He would serve as a delegate to the 1932 and 1936 Republican National Conventions in Chicago and Cleveland, and in 1933 was named as U.S. referee in bankruptcy for the Eastern District of Virginia. A member of the University of Richmond's board of trustees, Lankford was honored at a December 1935 banquet by his alma mater, not for his status as a politician, but for his past prowess on the football field. In a Richmond Times-Dispatch profile, Lankford was remarked as a standout member of the Richmond Spiders football and baseball teams:

"Mr. Lankford served on the football team for four years, captained the 1904 eleven, and played baseball for two years. He was a catcher on the baseball team, fullback on the football team, and one of the best all around athletes in the history of Richmond athletics. In 1904 he was awarded the trophy as the outstanding athelete at the school."

   Lankford served as a university trustee until his death at age 54 on December 27, 1937, at his home in Norfolk. Lankford was memorialized by ex-President Herbert Hoover in his Harrisonburg Daily News-Record obituary as "a great American idealistically devoted to the interest of the country. As great as his loss is to us, it is a great loss to the nation." Several days following his death Lankford was interred at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Norfolk, Virginia. He was survived by his wife of nearly thirty years, Nancy Waddill Lankford, who, following her death in 1963, was interred at Forest Lawn next to her husband.