Editing Homer E. Capehart

{{short description|American politician}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| birth_name          = Homer Earl Capehart
| image               = HomerCapehart.jpg
| order               = 
| jr/sr1              = United States Senator
| state1              = [[Indiana]]
| term_start1         = January 3, 1945
| term_end1           = January 3, 1963
| predecessor1        = [[William E. Jenner]]
| successor1          = [[Birch Bayh]]
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1897|6|6}}
| birth_place         = [[Algiers, Indiana]], U.S.
| death_date          = {{nowrap|{{death date and age|1979|09|03|1897|06|06}}}}
| death_place         = [[Indianapolis, Indiana]], U.S.
| resting_place       = [[Crown Hill Cemetery]]
| nationality         = 
| party               = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| spouse              = Irma Viola Mueller Capehart
| relations           = 
| children            = 2 sons, 1 daughter
| residence           = 
| alma_mater          = 
| occupation          = 
| profession          = 
| religion            = 
| signature           = HomerCapehart_Signature.png
| branch              = [[United States Army|U.S. Army]]
| rank                = [[Sergeant#United States|Sergeant]]
| serviceyears        = 1917&ndash;1919
| battles             = [[World War I]]
| unit                = [[Infantry]],<br>[[Quartermaster Corps (United States Army)|Quartermaster Corps]]
| website             = 
| footnotes           = 
}}
'''Homer Earl Capehart''' (June 6, 1897 – September 3, 1979) was an American businessman and politician from [[Indiana]].<ref name=waptobt>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1979/09/05/former-senator-capehart-of-indiana-dies-at-82/2aa653b8-6a53-43f4-ad73-768345b479a8/ |newspaper=Washington Post |last=Smith |first=J.Y. |title=Former Senator Capehart of Indiana dies at 82  |date=September 5, 1979 |access-date=October 26, 2017}}</ref> After serving in the [[United States Army]] during [[World War I]], he became involved in the manufacture of record players and other products. Capehart later served 18 years {{nowrap|(1945–1963)}} in the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]] as a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] from Indiana. Initially an isolationist on foreign policy, he took a more internationalist stance in later years; he retired after a narrow defeat for a fourth term in [[United States Senate elections, 1962|1962]].

==Early life==
Capehart was born in [[Algiers, Indiana]], in [[Pike County, Indiana|Pike County]], the son of Susan (Kelso) and Alvin T. Capehart, a [[Tenant farmer#United States|tenant farmer]].<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/09/05/archives/homer-e-capehart-is-dead-at-82-was-3term-senator-from-indiana.html |title = Homer E. Capehart is Dead at 82; Was 3-Term Senator from Indiana|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 1979-09-05|last1 = Cook|first1 = Joan}}</ref> During {{nowrap|[[World War I]],}} he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1917, served in the [[infantry]] and [[Quartermaster Corps (United States Army)|supply corps]], and was discharged as a [[Sergeant#United States|sergeant]] in 1919.<ref name=waptobt/>

==Business career==
Capehart attained fame as the father of the [[jukebox]] industry.<ref name="Pickett1986">{{cite journal |last= Pickett |first= William B. |author-link=William B. Pickett|date= 1986 |title=Homer E. Capehart: Phonograph Entrepreneur |jstor= 27790996 |journal= Indiana Magazine of History |volume=82 |issue=3 |pages= 264–276 }}</ref> He worked for the company Holcomb and Hoke, which made record players and popcorn machines, until 1928. He started his own company in 1928, and was forced out of the company by investors in 1931. The company was taken over as one of the divisions in the [[Philo Farnsworth]]'s Farnsworth Television and Radio Company in 1939.<ref>''Fortune'' Magazine February 1941</ref> In 1932, Capehart formed a new company called Packard. Packard developed the Simplex mechanism for automatic record changing, and sold the device to [[Wurlitzer]]. The entire company was eventually bought by Wurlitzer.

==Political career==
Capehart's career in the music industry made him wealthy and provided a path to the national political stage.<ref name="Pickett1986" /> Being the center-point for a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] revolution in Indiana and the Midwest, mainly by sponsoring a huge "Cornfield-Conference" on one of his farms in 1938.<ref>Indiana Public Media. [http://indianapublicmedia.org/momentofindianahistory/great-cornfield-conference/ The Great Cornfield Conference]</ref><ref>Ralph D. Gray, ''Indiana History: A Book of Readings'' (1994), p. 335-341.</ref> Capehart was first elected to the U.S. Senate in [[United States Senate elections, 1944|1944]], narrowly defeating [[Henry Schricker]], going on to win subsequent victories in [[United States Senate elections, 1950|1950]] against [[Alexander M. Campbell]] and in [[United States Senate elections, 1956|1956]] against [[Claude R. Wickard]]. When first elected to the Senate at the height of [[World War II]], Capehart supported efforts to compromise with the [[Japan]]ese on terms of surrender in the summer of 1945 when [[United States Senate Minority Leader|minority leader]] [[Wallace H. White, Jr.]] stated that the war might end sooner if [[President of the United States|President]] [[Harry Truman|Truman]] would state specifically in the upper chamber just what unconditional surrender meant for the Japanese. After 1945, Capehart was critical of the Truman administration and the military for their postwar policies in [[Germany]], accusing Truman and General [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] of a conspiracy to starve the remains of the German nation.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Turley |first1=Mark |title=From Nuremberg to Nineveh |pages=18}}</ref>

Throughout the 1950s, Capehart was constantly at odds with his Senate colleague [[William E. Jenner]], a staunch isolationist Republican who consistently opposed President Eisenhower's "modern-Republicanism." Capehart, although an isolationist himself during his first term in the Senate, became increasingly more internationalist during his later years in the Senate and this eventually led to the split with Jenner.

By 1959, Jenner had retired and Democrat [[Vance Hartke]] had taken his place. Capehart was extremely critical of President [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] and his [[New Frontier]] programs, such as [[Medicare (United States)|Medicare]] and the [[Peace Corps]]. In 1962, Capehart attained his greatest popularity and what would ultimately become his lasting legacy as one of the key figures in the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] by calling for a "crack-down on Cuba" and warning of a missile build-up on the island. Kennedy, before receiving the famous spy-plane photos, thought Capehart was "inventing an issue." This was not the case and Capehart, although not appreciated at the time, has come to be seen in a more positive light because of his early and aggressive stances on Cuba.

Capehart also backed, with Senator [[Kenneth Wherry]] of [[Nebraska]], legislation for building military family housing in the post-World War II era, when there were critical shortages of such housing. His support of public housing for veterans was part of his support of a strong defense, which he considered a legitimate use of public money. However, he opposed social welfare programs to give away houses to the poor at public expense as unconstitutional. In 1955, the U.S. Senate initiated a groundbreaking bill which authorized the construction of 540,000 public housing units over four years. Capehart, believing the bill was socialistic in nature, and lacking enough support to kill it, introduced an amendment which would have reduced the authorization to 35,000 units. Although Capehart thought he had enough votes to pass his amendment (even going so far as to tell majority leader [[Lyndon Johnson]] on the morning of the vote, "this time I'm going to rub your nose in shit"), his amendment was defeated by last-minute maneuvering engineered by Johnson.<ref>{{cite book |last= Caro |first= Robert A. | author-link = Robert Caro |title= The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate |publisher= [[Random House]] |year= 2002 |isbn= 0-394-52836-0|page=606|title-link= The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate }}</ref> Capehart voted in favor of the Senate amendment to the [[Civil Rights Act of 1957]] on August 7, 1957,<ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate – August 7, 1957|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=103|issue=10|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|page=13900|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1957-pt10/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1957-pt10-9-1.pdf|access-date=February 18, 2022}}</ref> but did not vote on the House amendment to the bill on August 29, 1957.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate – August 29, 1957|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=103|issue=12|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|page=16478|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1957-pt12/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1957-pt12-6-1.pdf|access-date=February 18, 2022}}</ref> Capehart voted in favor of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1960]],<ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate – April 8, 1960|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=106|issue=6|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|pages=7810–7811|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1960-pt6/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1960-pt6-8-1.pdf|access-date=February 18, 2022}}</ref> but did not vote on the [[Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution|24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate – March 27, 1962|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=108|issue=4|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|page=5105|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1962-pt4/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1962-pt4-9-1.pdf|access-date=February 18, 2022}}</ref>

Capehart was also an advocate of [[clean air legislation]], and briefly served on the [[United States Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management]] with Kennedy, [[Barry Goldwater]], and [[Karl Mundt]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Hersh|first=Burton|title=Bobby and J. Edgar: The Historic Face-Off Between The Kennedys and J. Edgar Hoover that Transformed America|year=2007|publisher=Basic Books|location=New York|isbn=978-0-465-00607-6|page=175}}</ref>

==Later life==
[[File:Grave of Homer Earl Capehart (1897–1979) at Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Capehart's grave at Crown Hill Cemetery]]

In the [[United States Senate elections, 1962|1962]] election, Capehart was narrowly defeated by 34-year-old [[Birch Bayh]]. He retired to his farming and business interests in Indiana, occasionally returning to Washington to provide both foreign policy and domestic-issue advice; jaded by the [[Watergate scandal]], he became increasingly critical of President [[Richard Nixon]].

Capehart died at age 82 at [[St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital|St. Vincent Hospital]] in Indianapolis in 1979 and is buried at its [[Crown Hill Cemetery]].

He is honored (along with Indiana Senator [[Sherman Minton]]) in the [[Minton-Capehart Federal Building]] near the [[Indiana World War Memorial Plaza]] in downtown [[Indianapolis]]. His name is also memorialized in the Capehart Room in the [[Old Dorm Block]] of [[Reed College]], which once contained a record player that Capehart had donated to the college.<ref>{{cite book |last= Sheehy |first= John  |title= Comrades of the Quest: An Oral History of Reed College |publisher= [[Oregon State University]] Press |year= 2012 |isbn= 978-0-87071-667-6|page=137}}</ref>

Both his son Thomas C. Capehart and daughter-in-law were killed aboard [[Avianca Flight 671]] on January 21, 1960.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-17-americans-among/156749066/ |title=17 Americans Among 37 Lost in Air Crash |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |place=Montego Bay, Jamaica |agency=AP |publication-date=22 January 1960 |date=1960-01-22 |access-date=2024-10-07 |via=Newspapers.com |pages=2, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-17-americans-among/156749109/ 14]}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |author=Pickett, William B. |title=Homer E. Capehart: A Senator's Life, 1897-1979 |publisher=[[Indiana Historical Society]] |location=Indianapolis |year=1990 |isbn=0-87-195054-5 |oclc=22182601 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/homerecapehartse0000pick }}
* {{cite archive |first=William B. |last=Pickett |item = |item-url = |type = Textual records and audio tapes|item-id = |date = 1969-73 |page= |pages= |fonds = |series = |file = |box= |collection =Biography: Homer E. Capehart, 1969-1973 |collection-url = http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/findingaids/view?doc.view=entire_text&docId=ohrc015 |repository = Indiana University Center for Documentary Research and Practice  |institution = Indiana University Center for History and Memory |location = Bloomington, Indiana |oclc= |accession= ohrc015 }}
* {{cite book |last=Pickett |first=William B. |editor1-last= Garraty |editor1-first= John A. |editor2-last= Carnes |editor2-first=Mark C. |title=American National Biography |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=1999 |chapter=Homer Earl Capehart|doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0700585 }}

==External links==
* [http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C000128 US Senate biography]
* [http://www.jitterbuzz.com/jukeboxes_companies.html#pjuk Jukeboxes made by Sen. Capehart's Packard Company]
* {{Internet Archive film clip|id=gov.archives.arc.95827|description="Longines Chronoscope with Homer Capehart"}}
* {{Internet Archive film clip|id=gov.archives.arc.95904|description="Longines Chronoscope with Homer E. Capehart"}}
* [http://www.indianahistory.org/our-collections/collection-guides/homer-e-capehart-papers-1938-1962.pdf Indiana History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160729054607/http://www.indianahistory.org/our-collections/collection-guides/homer-e-capehart-papers-1938-1962.pdf |date=July 29, 2016}} – Homer Capehart papers

{{s-start}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{s-bef|before=[[William E. Jenner]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] nominee for [[List of United States Senators from Indiana|U.S. Senator]] from [[Indiana]]<br>([[Classes of United States Senators|Class 3]])|years=[[1944 United States Senate election in Indiana|1944]], [[1950 United States Senate election in Indiana|1950]], [[1956 United States Senate election in Indiana|1956]], [[1962 United States Senate election in Indiana|1962]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[William Ruckelshaus]]}}
{{s-par|us-sen}}
{{s-bef|before=[[William E. Jenner]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[U.S. Congressional Delegations from Indiana|United States Senator (Class 3) from Indiana]]|years=1945&ndash;1963}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Birch Bayh]]}}
{{s-end}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Capehart, Homer E.}}
[[Category:1897 births]]
[[Category:1979 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Pike County, Indiana]]
[[Category:Indiana Republicans]]
[[Category:American Lutherans]]
[[Category:United States Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:Republican Party United States senators from Indiana]]
[[Category:Wurlitzer]]
[[Category:Burials at Crown Hill Cemetery]]
[[Category:20th-century Lutherans]]
[[Category:United States Army soldiers]]
[[Category:American anti-communists]]
[[Category:20th-century United States senators]]
[[Category:Acacia members]]