Notable Tennesseans who died in 2023 included current and former lawmakers, including a governor, and a civil rights activist who participated in the movement to desegregate Nashville’s lunch counters in the 1960s. Each of them was remembered for their work to improve the lives of Tennesseans through politics, policy and the pursuit of justice.
Rep. Bill Beck (June 5)
Rep. Bill Beck, D-Nashville, Metro Councilmember Nancy VanReece, late community leader David McMurry, Sen. Brenda Gilmore, D-Nashville and U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper. (Photo courtesy of Nancy VanReece)
Nashville’s political community was stunned when Democratic Rep. Bill Beck died after suffering a heart attack.
The scion of a prominent East Nashville family of attorneys, Beck was elected to the Tennessee General Assembly in 2014 and was currently serving on the House Ethics, Civil Justice, Transportation and State Government committees. He became known among Democrats and Republicans as a genial colleague, easy to work with and easy to joke with.
Carson Bill Beck was a native of Nashville. He graduated from University of School of Nashville, Belmont University and The Nashville School of Law, before opening a law practice with his mother, Martha Lu Cone Beck. He was active in the Madison community and served as a board members for organizations including the Kiwanis Club of Madison and Madison-Rivergate Chamber of Commerce.
Beck was 61 years old.
Roy Herron, former state legislator (July 9)
Roy Herron, a West Tennessee native who served 26 years as state representative, state senator before becoming chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party, died from catastrophic injuries sustained in a jet ski accident.
Herron was known for his high energy, strong moral compass, a fierce work ethic, unparalleled debating skills and devotion to his Methodist faith and to his family.
Roy Herron, former Tennessee senator. (Photo: Roy Herron)
He was first elected to the Tennessee General Assembly in 1986 as a state representative, taking the seat held by Ned Ray McWherter, who was elected governor the same year. In 1996, he was elected to the Senate, where he rose to become chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus — at a time Democrats held solid majorities in both the House and the Senate.
In 2010, he was the Democratic nominee for Congress in the 8th Congressional District, losing to Crockett County farmer Stephen Fincher. The Tennessee Democratic Party executive committee elected Herron chairman in 2013, where he served one two-year term. He authored four books and numerous articles.
Don Sundquist, former governor (August 27)
Don Sundquist, former U.S. Congressman and two-term governor of Tennessee, died at the age of 87.
A native of Illinois, Sundquist moved to Memphis in the early 1970’s and became active in Republican politics. He was chair of the Shelby County Republican Party, a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1976 and 1980, and managed Tennessee Sen. Howard Baker’s short lived 1980 presidential campaign.
In 1982, Sundquist ran for Congress in the newly-drawn 7th District, beating Bob Clement by 1,476 votes. Clement, son of the late four-time Gov. Frank Clement, and the youngest person to be elected to statewide office in his role on the Tennessee Public Service Commission, was considered the frontrunner.
In 1994, Sundquist defeated then-Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen to become governor. In his first term, he created the Tennessee Department of Children’s Service and eliminated the Public Service Commission, replacing it with the Tennessee Regulatory Authority.
Official portrait of Gov. Don Sundquist, painted by Tom Donahue, in the Tennessee Capitol.
He won reelection in 1998 handily but his legacy was marred among conservatives during his second term, in which he proposed a state income tax. Months of protests resulted from his legislative bid to pass the tax, with protestors — amplified by then State Rep. Marsha Blackburn — vandalizing the Capitol and circling in cars, horns honking.
Bill Phillips, former deputy mayor to Nashville Mayors Bill Purcell and John Cooper, said Sundquist had “the soul of a public servant.”
King Hollands, civil rights leader (December 22)
King Madison Hollands, a member of the Nashville Student Movement, which challenged racial segregation in Nashville in the 1960s, at the age of 82 in Nashville.
In 1960, while studying physics at Fisk University, Hollands was arrested for participating in a lunch counter sit-in at a Woolworth’s store — during which students were spit on and physically assaulted — on what is now Rep. John Lewis Way in downtown Nashville.
“Only students who had gone through training could participate,” he told the Lookout’s Anita Wadhwani in 2021. “Those who didn’t — or felt like they couldn’t not react, also had a role. They stood outside. They observed.”
He spent two weeks in jail following his arrest, but was not deterred from continuing his activism, and continued to be a community leader through his life. As a leader of the Edgehill Neighborhood Coalition, he worked to protect the Edgehill neighborhood from encroachment by Belmont University.
King Hollands poses outside the home owned by Nashville civil rights attorney Alexander Looby. Looby’s home, near Fisk University and Meharry Medical College, was bombed in April 1960 by segregationists. (Photo: John Partipilo)
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