Editing Thomas E. Dewey (section)

==Early life and family==
[[File:Thomas Dewey HS Yearbook.png|left|thumb|Dewey at [[Owosso High School]], 1919]]
Dewey was born and raised in [[Owosso, Michigan]], where his father, George Martin Dewey, owned, edited, and published the local newspaper, the ''Owosso Times''.<ref>(Smith, pp. 66–67)</ref> His mother, Annie (Thomas), whom he called "Mater", bequeathed her son "a healthy respect for common sense and the average man or woman who possessed it." She also left "a headstrong assertiveness that many took for conceit, a set of small-town values never entirely erased by exposure to the sophisticated East, and a sense of proportion that moderated triumph and eased defeat."<ref>(Smith, pp. 58–59)</ref> One journalist noted that as a boy "he did show leadership and ambition above the average; by the time he was thirteen, he had a crew of nine other youngsters working for him" selling newspapers and magazines in Owosso.<ref name="auto">(Gunther, p. 526)</ref> In his senior year in high school he served as the president of his class, and was the chief editor of the school yearbook.<ref name="sdl.lib.mi.us">{{Cite web |url=http://sdl.lib.mi.us/history/dewey.html |title=Thomas E. Dewey |access-date=December 27, 2017 |archive-date=January 12, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170112115218/http://sdl.lib.mi.us/history/dewey.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> His senior caption in the yearbook stated "First in the council hall to steer the state, and ever foremost in a tongue debate", and a biographer wrote that "the bent of his mind, from his earliest days, was towards debate."<ref name="auto"/> He received his B.A. degree from the [[University of Michigan]] in 1923, and his [[Bachelor of Laws|LL.B.]] degree from [[Columbia Law School]] in 1925.<ref>{{cite book |date=1936 |title=Columbia University Quarterly |volume=28 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XJTOAAAAMAAJ&q=%22thomas+edmund+dewey%22 |location=New York, NY |publisher=Columbia University Press |page=223 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |date=1957 |title=Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory |volume=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xe47AQAAIAAJ&q=%22thomas+e.+dewey%22+%22columbia%22+%22LL.B.%22+%221925%22 |location=New Providence, NJ |publisher=Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, Incorporated |page=2954 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

While at the University of Michigan Dewey joined [[Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia]], a national fraternity for men of music, and was a member of the [[University of Michigan Men's Glee Club|Men's Glee Club]]. While growing up in Owosso he was a member of the choir at Christ Episcopal Church.<ref name="sdl.lib.mi.us"/> He was an excellent singer with a deep, [[baritone]] voice, and in 1923 he finished in third place in the National Singing Contest.<ref>Richard Norton Smith, ''Thomas E. Dewey and his Times'', p. 25.</ref> He briefly considered a career as a professional singer but decided against it after a temporary throat ailment convinced him that such a career would be risky. He then decided to pursue a career as a lawyer.<ref>Smith, p. 86.</ref> He also wrote for ''[[Michigan Daily|The Michigan Daily]],'' the university's student newspaper.<ref>(Smith, p. 77)</ref>

On June 16, 1928, Dewey married Frances Eileen Hutt.<ref name="MrsDewey">{{cite news |date=July 21, 1970 |title=Mrs. Dewey Wife of Ex-Governor |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/07/21/archives/mrs-dewey-wife-of-exgovernor-exsinger-who-campaigned-with-her.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |location=New York, NY |page=35 |via=[[TimesMachine]]}}</ref> They met in [[Chicago]] in 1923, when Dewey took singing lessons during a summer course offered by Percy Rector Stephens, for whom Hutt worked as a secretary.<ref name="MrsDewey"/> A native of [[Sherman, Texas]] who was raised in Sherman and in [[Sapulpa, Oklahoma]], she was valedictorian of her 1920 high school class.<ref name="MrsDewey"/> Hutt was a singer and stage actress; after their marriage she dropped her acting career.<ref>Smith, p. 103</ref> They had two sons, [[Thomas E. Dewey Jr.]] and John Martin Dewey.

Although Dewey served as a [[prosecutor]] and [[District Attorney]] in New York City for many years, his home from 1939 until his death was a large farm, called "Dapplemere," located near the town of [[Pawling (town), New York|Pawling]] some {{convert|65|mi|km|0}} north of New York City.<ref>(Smith, pp. 321–323)</ref> According to biographer [[Richard Norton Smith]], Dewey "loved Dapplemere as [he did] no other place", and Dewey was once quoted as saying that "I work like a horse five days and five nights a week for the privilege of getting to the country on the weekend."<ref>(Smith, p. 325)</ref> In 1945, Dewey told a reporter that "my farm is my roots&nbsp;... the heart of this nation is the rural small town."<ref>(Gunther, p. 523)</ref> Dapplemere was part of a tight-knit rural community called [[Quaker Hill, New York|Quaker Hill]], which was known as a haven for the prominent and well-to-do. Among Dewey's neighbors on Quaker Hill were the famous reporter and radio broadcaster [[Lowell Thomas]], the Reverend [[Norman Vincent Peale]], and the legendary [[CBS News]] journalist [[Edward R. Murrow]].<ref>(Smith, p. 320)</ref>

During his twelve years as governor, Dewey also kept a New York City residence and office in Suite 1527 of the [[The Roosevelt Hotel (Manhattan)|Roosevelt Hotel]].<ref>(Smith, p. 351)</ref> Dewey was an active, lifelong member of the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]].<ref>Smith, pp. 320–326.</ref>

Dewey was a lifelong Republican, and in the 1920s and 1930s, he was a party worker in New York City, eventually rising to become Chair of [[The New York Young Republican Club]] in 1931.<ref name="auto1">(Gunther, p. 528)</ref> When asked in 1946 why he was a Republican, Dewey replied, "I believe that the Republican Party is the best instrument for bringing sound government into the hands of competent men and by this means preserving our liberties ... But there is another reason why I am a Republican. I was born one."<ref name="auto1" />