ADLAI E.
STEVENSON II
6 FACTS ABOUT BLOOMINGTON’S
Statesman.
Former governor. Intellectual.
Part of a
distinguished
Illinois political
dynasty.
Although he was technically a California native, Adlai E. Stevenson II was a product of Bloomington. He was raised here, worked here and carried the stories of the community to Princeton University, the governor’s mansion and the United Nations.
EARLY L.A. YEARS
Adlai Ewing Ferd Stevenson II was born in Los Angeles in February 1900, the son of Helen Davis Stevenson and Lewis Stevenson, a future Illinois secretary of state who at the time worked for the Hearst Newspaper Co.
Jesse W. Fell, Stevenson's maternal great-grandfather, was a founder of the Republican Party in Illinois and published The Pantagraph. His other grandfather and namesake, Adlai Ewing Stevenson, was vice president of the United States and died in Bloomington on June 14, 1914.
Princeton University Library photo
Dad’s side
Mom’s side
Great
grandparents
Grandparents
Parents
Grandfather
Adlai
Baby Adlai
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library photo
Adlai Ewing Ferd Stevenson II, age 2
BACK IN ILLINOIS
Stevenson was raised in Bloomington at 1316 E. Washington St., went to University High School in Normal and enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a seaman apprentice during World War I. He later graduated from Princeton University and attended Harvard University before coming back to Bloomington to write for The Pantagraph.
Stevenson eventually studied law at Northwestern University. He married
Ellen Borden, whose family owned the Borden Milk Co., in 1928. They would have three sons.
RISING IN POLITICS
Stevenson served as a special attorney to the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, part of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. During World War II, he was appointed assistant secretary of the Navy by Col. Frank Knox, former publisher of the Chicago Daily News, in 1940 and later was a figure in the early formation of the United Nations. Eight years later, Stevenson was elected governor as a Democrat.
GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS
Stevenson scored a surprise victory over GOP Gov. Dwight H. Green and ran a reform agenda that saw the creation of a merit system for state police and additional aid for education.
While governor, he was tapped as the Democratic nominee in 1952 to run against the wildly popular Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, but was hesitant. A reporter asked him on “Meet the Press: “Wouldn’t your grandfather, Vice President Stevenson, twirl in his grave if he saw you running away from a chance to be the Democratic nominee in 1952?” Said Stevenson: “I think we have to leave grandfather lie.”
He was ultimately defeated in 1952, nominated again four years later, only to lose.
Presidential nomination acceptance speech
Adlai for president
tv ad
Wikimedia Commons poster
Pantagraph file photo
ROLE IN KENNEDY ERA
Stevenson was appointed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations following the election of John F. Kennedy.
His most famous exchange during the period was during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when Soviet Ambassador Valerian Zorin refused to say whether there were missiles positioned in Cuba.
Zorin asked that Aldai move on, prompting the ambassador to say:
“I am prepared to wait until hell freezes over if that is your decision.”
Associated Press photo
LBJ and Stevenson conversation about Vietnam
On July 14, 1965, while walking in London, where he was meeting with British officials, he collapsed on a street and died.
LATER YEARS
“He was a great believer in national humility, modesty, self-examination and self-criticism,” said Richard G. Browne, head of the state’s higher education board, at a memorial at Illinois State University.
His son, Adlai Ewing Stevenson III, was a U.S. senator from Illinois from 1970 to 1981 and an unsuccessful candidate for governor 1982 and 1986. Adlai IV is a business executive whose son, Adlai V, was born in 1994.
President Lyndon
B. Johnson's statement on the death of Stevenson
Library of Congress photo
Pantagraph file photo
Lewis Stevenson
Wikipedia
Lewis Stevenson worked for the Hearst Newspaper Co. and became an Illinois secretary of state.
FATHER
Jesse W. Fell
Jesse W. Fell was a founder of the Republican Party in Illinois and published The Pantagraph.
GREAT-GRANDFATHER
Wikipedia
Helen Davis Stevenson
MOTHER
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library photo
Adlai Ewing Stevenson
Adlai Ewing Stevenson was vice president of the United States and died in Bloomington on June 14, 1914.
GRANDFATHER
Program cover for the 1893 inauguration of President Grover Cleveland and Vice President Adlai E. Stevenson I.
“Not since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy,” United Press International wrote, “has the death of an American statesman evoked such expressions of shock and outpouring of tribute from free men around the world.”
Services were held at the National Cathedral and the Illinois Statehouse. President Lyndon Johnson and his wife Lady Bird attended the July 19, 1965, memorial service for Stevenson at the Unitarian Church on East Emerson Street.
He is buried at Evergreen Cemetery.
