Clyde Herman Vinson -- Bookkeeper and City Commissioner

 

Clyde Herman Vinson was born on February 7, 1882 in Trigg County, Kentucky, the fifth and youngest child of Henry Cullen Vinson and Mary Catherine Sumner Vinson.  Henry was known as one of the leading farmers of Trigg County and was a native of Stewart County, Tennessee.  Mary was a housewife and a native of Trigg County.  Clyde’s siblings were Alfred Thomas Vinson, born in 1866 and married Inez Thomas; Alice Lula Vinson, born in 1869 and married Bluford Ira Thomas; John Robert Vinson, born in 1871 and married Willie Armstrong and then Gertrude Wilson and Jesse Monroe Vinson, born in 1874 and married Forrest May Thomas.

Clyde grew up on the family farm in Trigg County and attended the county schools.  Clyde began his long and active business career at his first job in Cadiz with Chappell and Cowherd Company, a grocery store which was later known as J. W. Cowherd and Company.  Clyde left his job at Chappell and Cowherd and moved to Louisville where he attended the Spencerian Business College. Spencerian’s Louisville campus now operates as part of the regionally accredited Sullivan University in Louisville.  After leaving Spencerian, Clyde came back to Cadiz to serve as the bookkeeper for the Hancock Tobacco Company.

In 1910, Clyde moved to Hopkinsville, Kentucky where he was employed by the American Snuff Company and later the U. S. Tobacco Company. He went on to hold the position of bookkeeper for many years at the J. H. Anderson Department Store in Hopkinsville.

In 1936 Clyde began serving as the City Commissioner for the City of Hopkinsville, a position that he would serve in for eight terms.  A former city clerk of Hopkinsville noted that when Clyde took office in 1936, the city had only $1,400 in the bank and owed more than $300,000. Through Clyde’s conservative position regarding governmental spending there was over $173,000 in the general fund of the city and Hopkinsville was debt-free at the close of 1957.  He was praised by officials of the city as the best city commissioner Hopkinsville had ever had.

Clyde was never married.

On March 8, 1958 at about 1 p.m. in the afternoon Clyde was apparently stricken with a heart attack at his home in Hopkinsville.  He was rushed to the Jennie Stuart Hospital where he died a few hours later.  Clyde was 76 years old at the time of his death.  His body was taken back to Cadiz where he was buried in the East End Cemetery.

Clyde Vinson tombstone

LINEAGE: (Clyde Herman Vinson was the son of Henry Cullen and Mary Catherine Sumner Vinson and the grandson of Thomas Allison and Emeline Thomas Vinson.   Emeline was the fifth child of Cullen and Elizabeth Futrell Thomas.  Cullen was the first child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.)