Earl Buford Ellington (June 27, 1907 – April 3, 1972) was an American politician who served as the 42nd governor of Tennessee from 1959 to 1963, and again from 1967 to 1971. Along with his political ally, Frank G. Clement, he helped lead a political machine that controlled the governor's office for 18 years, from 1953 to 1971. Ellington was a supporter of President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was appointed in 1965 as the Director of the Office of Emergency Planning during the Johnson Administration. Early life and career Ellington was born in Holmes County, Mississippi, the son of Abner and Cora (Grantham) Ellington. He studied religion at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, but had to drop out due to financial difficulties. He edited a newspaper in Durant, Mississippi, for a brief period. In 1929, he married Catherine Ann Cheek, and moved to her native Marshall County, Tennessee, in the south central part of the state. There he bought a store in the Verona community. He worked as a salesman for American Harvester in the 1930s, and was a supervising salesman with Tennessee Farm Bureau Insurance in the early 1940s. Having joined the Democratic Party, in 1944, Ellington worked in the campaign of successful gubernatorial candidate, Jim Nance McCord. Two years later, he was the Marshall County manager for the campaign of US Congressman Joe L. Evins. In 1948, Ellington ran and was elected to Marshall County's seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives. In 1952, Ellington managed the successful campaign of Frank Clement, who defeated incumbent Gordon Browning in the Democratic primary for governor, and went on to win the general election. Clement's campaign had the support of Memphis political boss E. H. Crump, who was seeking to regain the influence he had lost after Browning defeated his candidate, McCord, four years earlier. Clement appointed Ellington as Commissioner of Agriculture, where he served until the late 1950s under more than one administration. Governor In 1953, the Tennessee State Constitution was amended, extending the gubernatorial term from two years to four years. The new amendments prevented governors from serving consecutive terms, but a temporary exception was made for Clement. He was elected to a full four-year term in 1954 after his initial two-year term. In 1958, with Clement term-limited, Ellington sought the Democratic Party's nomination for governor. His opponents were Memphis mayor Edmund Orgill, Nashville attorney Clifford Allen, and Judge