supporter of President Harry S. Truman. He was first elected in 1948 and then re-elected for three more terms. While in Congress, he was a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and was an advocate of recognition of China and support for the Marshall Plan. Notably, he did not sign the Southern Manifesto in 1956. As a result, Chatham lost the Democratic Party primary to Ralph James Scott. Later years Chatham was a trustee of the University of North Carolina and of Woodberry Forest School; president of the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce; and a member of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers, the American Legion, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. In 1948, he served on the North Carolina Board of Conservation and Development and was president of the North Carolina Dairymen's Association. Family life In 1919, Chatham married Lucy Hodgin Hanes (1895–1949), daughter of John Wesley Hanes. The couple had two sons, Hugh Gwyn II and Richard Thurmond, Jr. After Lucy died, Chatham married Patricia Firestone Coyner in 1950. In 1951 the couple purchased and remodeled Prospect House. The couple had one son, Walter Firestone, born in 1952. Chatham died in Durham, North Carolina and was buried in the Salem Cemetery in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His estate was valued at almost $2,000,000, of which $250,000 was used to establish the Chatham Foundation, a charitable trust supporting education. The Thurmond and Lucy Chatham House at Winston-Salem was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. References Biography uses material from: Biographical Note, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill External links Congressional Biography Inventory of the Richard Thurmond Chatham Papers, in the Southern Historical Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill. 1896 births 1957 deaths People from Elkin, North Carolina People from Forsyth County, North Carolina Politicians from Winston-Salem, North Carolina University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Yale University alumni Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from North Carolina Hanes family 20th-century American politicians Woodberry Forest School alumni Burials at Salem Cemetery