Thomas Porcher Stoney | |
---|---|
53rd Mayor of Charleston | |
In office 1923–1931 | |
Preceded by | John P. Grace |
Succeeded by | Burnet R. Maybank |
Personal details | |
Born | December 16,1889 Goose Creek,South Carolina,US |
Died | April 22,1973 83) | (aged
Spouse | Beverly Means DuBose |
Children | Theodore DuBose Stoney,Laurence O'Hear Stoney,Randell Croft Stoney |
Alma mater | University of the South,Sewanee,TN;University of South Carolina School of Law (1911) |
Thomas Porcher Stoney was the fifty-third mayor of Charleston,South Carolina,serving between 1923 and 1931.
Stoney was born at Medway Plantation on December 16,1889,in rural Berkeley County,South Carolina to Samuel Stoney and Eliza Croft Stoney. [1]
Stoney graduated from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1911 and began a private law practice in Charleston,South Carolina. In 1915,he was elected solicitor (prosecutor) for the Ninth Judicial Circuit,the youngest solicitor elected at that time. [2] He remained in that office until 1923 when he was elected mayor of Charleston.
Stoney encouraged Clelia Peronneau Mathewes McGowan to become one of the first women City Alderman in Charleston. [3] He was re-elected in 1927 and completed that term. One of his major accomplishments as mayor was the creation of a municipal airport. His administration also oversaw the construction of recreational facilities;such as a golf course,a playground named for William Moultrie,and Johnson Hagood Stadium (then a municipal facility,but today the football stadium for The Citadel Bulldogs football team).
He ran for a United States Senate seat,but lost in the Democratic primary to James F. Byrnes in 1936 by a margin of about 10-to-1. [4] During his life he swung across the political spectrum. He was a solid democrat in his early political life,but grew disaffected with the New Deal. In 1936 he gave a speech about the New Deal and said,"[A]ll of this spending is like giving a drunk some drinks to sober him up." [5]
Stoney died on April 22,1973,at the age of 83. He was struck while walking across a road. [6] He is buried at Strawberry Chapel in Berkeley County,South Carolina.