Senator Lester Hunt

Lester C. Hunt came to Wyoming in 1911 to play semiprofessional baseball for a Lander team. In 1917, he returned to Wyoming to establish his dental practice and rear his family in Lander. Hunt actively served in World War I as a First Lieutenant, Captain, and Major in the United States Army Dental Corps from 1917 to 1919 and was a Major in the Army Reserve from 1919 to 1954. His career in public service began with election to the Wyoming House of Representatives in 1933, serving Fremont County. He then was chosen to be Wyoming's Secretary of State from 1935 to 1943, followed by election to two consecutive terms as Governor of Wyoming, holding office in the difficult years during and after World War II.

In addition to managing wartime concerns and logistics, Governor Hunt's many accomplishments included the implementation of a pension system for teachers and advocacy for a pension system for state employees, as well as expanded systems of health benefits. During his exemplary years of accomplishment as Secretary of State, he obtained a copyright to preserve the mark of the bucking horse and rider and developed and implemented plans for the bucking horse and rider license plate, first issued in 1936.

As Wyoming's accomplished junior US senator from 1949 to 1954, Lester C. Hunt served on congressional committees, including the Senate Armed Services Committee, a special Senate Committee investigating war crimes, and the Special Committee on Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce. Democratic Senator Hunt supported various federal social programs proposed by the Eisenhower Administration and advocated for federal support of low-cost health and dental insurance policies. He offered strong support for the expansion of Social Security and the abolition of racial segregation in the District of Columbia.

Through Senate hearings, Lester Hunt was introduced to the bullying and false accusation tactics of Senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy and his followers. In 1953, Hunt’s son was arrested and convicted of soliciting an undercover police officer for sex. McCarthy and other Republican colleagues attempted to force Hunt to resign by threatening to publicize his son’s arrest.

Despondent and under terrible stress, Senator Lester Hunt committed suicide in his Senate office on June 19th, 1954.