The end of an era: remembering former Gov. Winfield Dunn

Writer Saralee Terry Woods with former Gov. Winfield Dunn. (Photo: Saralee Terry Woods)

Winfield Dunn, governor of Tennessee, was a giant of a man. I don’t say that because he was tall and lit up every room he entered, but because he had all of the makings of an incredible human being.

My earliest memory of Dunn was when he came to Scott County, Tennessee, in 1970 to speak to the Oneida Kiwanis Club. He was running for governor in a crowded Republican primary.

My mother came back from the meeting energized and excited. She said Dunn was going to win and we were all going to help. Daddy — George A. Terry — was the one who had been elected to the state legislature, but Mother was the politician in the family.

My father was no longer in elected office and we were excited when Gov. Dunn appointed him to work in the newly created Tennessee Department of General Services, which oversees spending with private contractors. Dunn also established the Department of Economic and Community Development which recruits jobs to Tennessee. But the most important Dunn accomplishment, in my opinion, was the expansion of kindergarten to every Tennessee county.

Official portrait of Gov. Winfield Dunn in the Tennessee Capitol, painted by Martin Kellogg.

I had the honor of working for Dunn as his executive assistant when he ran for governor again in 1986. I decided in 1985 that it was time for me to leave my job in state government, where I’d been hired right out of graduate school to work in planning. I learned if I wanted to make a difference I needed to work for a politician from the ground up, which meant to immerse myself in a political campaign.

There were rumors that Dunn was considering another run for governor. Winfield and his wife, Betty, were beloved in our home because when Gov. Dunn hired my father, Mother was able at long last to move back to her Nashville hometown and Daddy was offered a job that he loved.

I did not tell my parents I was going after a job to work for Dunn, but go after that job I did by reaching out to every prominent Republican I knew. Some of those people are no longer around but I was grateful that Tom Garland, Tom Beasley and Ted Welch picked up the phone and gave my efforts credibility with Dunn.

I finally had an interview with Dunn in his private business office in the spring of 1985. He said he needed someone to staff his unofficial office to plan his campaign and that it was down to another person and me. Imagine how quickly I turned in my resignation letter at the state and jumped into an unforgettable experience.
Working with Gov. Dunn was an energizing experience. He came to work every day happy with the opportunity of making a difference in Tennessee. I traveled with him and Betty all over the state: They both were smart, informed, compassionate and had a sense of humor that was contagious.

The big difference in working for Dunn versus other politicians is that others would ask, “Who are these people and how long do I have to stay and shake hands?” With Dunn, it was a struggle to get him to leave an event and stay on schedule. He would start by greeting everyone working in the kitchen and then get to the folks who had donated money. After 15 months of barbecue or chicken and peas, depending on which part of the state we were in, he set an example on how to concede an election with class when he lost the race for the governor in 1986 to Ned Ray McWherter.

What people may not know is that Dunn became a good friend to McWherter. These two leaders put the people of Tennessee first and found ways to work together. Dunn also became friends with John Jay Hooker, the Democrat whom Dunn defeated for Governor in 1970. He visited Hooker in hospice and held his hand as he lay dying.

I stayed in touch with Gov. Dunn through the years. He was so funny when he said he was not interested in meeting my husband, Larry Woods, a professor and an attorney. That might have been because Larry brought legal cases against the Dunn administration. Dunn was gracious when he did meet Larry and the two of them became good friends because of their love of books, their aspirations to do good things and because they both liked to laugh.

Winfield and Betty Dunn never stopped helping people. Dunn took the time out of his schedule to come to my father’s funeral and to honor the life of my brother-in-law, Frank Woods, when Frank died. There are thousands of compassionate acts carried out by Dunn that we will never hear about.

The state of Tennessee will miss him. His passing is truly the end of statesmanlike leadership and kindness to all.