Leonard Ray Blanton (April 10, 1930 – November 22, 1996) was an American businessman and politician who served as the 44th governor of Tennessee from 1975 to 1979. He also served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, from 1967 to 1973. Though he initiated a number of government reforms and was instrumental in bringing foreign investment to Tennessee, his term as governor was marred by scandal over the selling of pardons and liquor licenses. Early life and Congress Blanton was born near Adamsville, Tennessee, in the community of New Hope, the son of Leonard and Ova (Delaney) Blanton. He was raised in an impoverished sharecropping family with road-building interests. While working with his family's road company, he occasionally got into fights at bars in Mississippi, and was once grazed in the neck by a stray bullet. Blanton graduated from Shiloh High School in 1948, and obtained a bachelor's degree in agriculture from the University of Tennessee in 1951. He taught school in Mooresville, Indiana, from 1951 to 1953, when he returned to Adamsville to work in the family construction business, B&B Construction. In 1964, Blanton was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives, representing McNairy County. He often sat in the back of the House chamber wearing sunglasses during House proceedings. In 1966, Blanton ran for Congress, challenging 12-term incumbent and former Crump machine ally Tom J. Murray in the Democratic primary for the 7th congressional district, which was based in Jackson and included Adamsville. In a major upset, Blanton edged Murray for the nomination, winning by just 384 votes out of the nearly 70,000 votes cast. He went on to win the general election, and was twice reelected. As a congressman, Blanton had relatively poor attendance, sponsored few bills of significance, and served on just two committees: the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee, and the District of Columbia committee. He instead focused on his constituents, namely by trying to acquire funding for projects in Tennessee, including the state's first Head Start Program. He spent a great deal of time at his district office responding to voter concerns, and frequently spoke to groups of students. Blanton criticized the anti-war movement, voted against extending the Voting Rights Act, and opposed lowering the voting age to 18. Tennessee lost a congressional district after the 1970 census, and the legislature merged most of Blanton's territory with the neighboring 8th District of