Pittman, Vail, 1883-1964

Vail Pittman was the nineteenth governor of Nevada and served from 1945 to 1951. He was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1883. He became a successful newspaper publisher, and in 1920, with his wife Ida Brewington Pittman, he purchased the Ely Daily Times in Ely, Nevada. In 1924, Pittman successfully ran for Nevada State Senate, in which he served from 1925 to 1928. He was elected Lieutenant Governor of Nevada in 1943, and when Governor Edward P. Carville resigned in 1945 in order to serve in the U.S. Senate, Pittman became governor of Nevada. He was reelected as governor in 1946, but was defeated in 1950. In 1954, he unsuccessfully ran for governor again. In 1960, he served as a member of the Democratic National Committee. Pittman died in 1964.

Sources:

Glad, Betty. Key Pittman: The Tragedy of a Senate Insider. New York City: Columbia University Press, 2013.

“Nevada Governor Vail Montgomery Pittman.” Former Governors’ Bios. National Governors Association. Accessed October 2, 2015. http://www.nga.org/cms/home/governors/past-governors-bios/page_nevada/col2-content/main-content-list/title_pittman_vail.html

Gottschalk, Gertrude. “Ida Louise (Brewington) Pittman (1893 – 1984).” Nevada’s First Ladies. December 2009. Nevada Women’s History Project, University of Nevada, Reno. http://www.unr.edu/nwhp/bios/nv1st/pittman_i.html