the sale of liquor." Comer traveled the state to garner support for the proposed amendment, but it failed to win enough votes. Comer noted, "Just as we would separate cholera from hogs, ticks from cattle, and boll weevils from cotton, so we should separate from youth of the state all that would deteriorate and destroy." Later life As state law prevented governors from running for successive terms, Comer was ineligible for the 1910 gubernatorial election. In the election of 1914, Comer was defeated by a candidate supported by an "unlikely coalition" of railroads, organized labor, and supporters of local option [for prohibition]. In the spring of 1920, Governor Thomas Kilby appointed Comer to serve the remaining months of the late John H. Bankhead's term in the United States Senate. He did not seek election when the term expired. Following his short time in the Senate, Comer spent the remainder of his life following his business pursuits. Aside from issuing his endorsement for Alabama gubernatorial candidate A.H. Carmichael, Comer refrained from political activity following his term in the U.S. Senate. Comer died on August 15, 1927. His wife, Eva Jane, died on March 6, 1920, while he was serving in the Senate. He and his wife were survived by their nine children: Sally Bailey, John Fletcher, James McDonald, Eva Mignon, Catherine, Braxton Bevelle, Eva, Braxton Bragg Jr., and Hugh M. Comer. He was buried in Birmingham's Elmwood Cemetery. Legacy By the mid-20th century, Comer was hailed as a reformer who brought Alabama's primary and secondary educational systems into the mainstream. He was praised for his business savvy and efforts to bring Avondale Mills to Birmingham and Central Alabama. He relied on a system of segregation, white supremacy, and child labor to earn profits for his plantations, mines, and mills. His improvements to Alabama's educational systems benefitted white students, while African-American schools and students were underfunded. Literacy rates for whites increased during his tenure as governor. The white-dominated Democratic legislature consistently underfunded African-American education. Comer also helped establish a tuberculosis sanatorium as part of using state funds to improve public health. He also strengthened insurance laws. Encouraged by President Theodore Roosevelt's initiative to conserve natural resources, Comer gained legislation to establish the Alabama Soil Conservation Department; it was to oversee a public park system in the state. He increased transportation funding to improve roads as part of the state's basic infrastructure. Much