Background
Thomas Fugate was born on April 10, 1899 on a farm near Tazewell, in Claiborne County, Tennessee.
Thomas Fugate was born on April 10, 1899 on a farm near Tazewell, in Claiborne County, Tennessee.
He attended public schools before pursuing higher education at the University of Tennessee and Lincoln Memorial University.
He served in the United States Representative from Virginia in the Eighty-first and Eighty-second Congresses. Fugate was elected to Congress as a Democrat. Soon after, Fugate moved his family to Ewing, Virginia to pursue his business interests.
Like his father, Thomas Fugate"s business focused on banking, trade and farming.
Without being asked, Fugate was nominated as a Democratic candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates. He served in the House for one term, from 1928 to 1930.
After leaving office, Fugate continued to take on a variety of business positions, including president of the Peoples Bank of Ewing, director of the Virginia-Tennessee Farm Bureau, and president of the Ewing Live Stock Company. He had also become a successful campaign manager for local Congressman John Flanagan.
When Flanagan decided to retire in 1948, Fugate was selected as the Democratic nominee to replace him.
He was subsequently elected to the Eighty-first and Eighty-second Congresses on behalf of the 9th Virginia district. With his banking experience, Fugate also selected to the Banking and Currency Committee and helped to oversee the loans made by the Export-Import Bank. Fugate chose not to stand for a third term in Congress, instead returning to his farming and business interests in Ewing.
Fugate died on September 22, 1980 at the age of 81.
He is buried in Richmond Cemetery, in Ewing.
Fugate"s interest in politics remained strong, and in 1945 he was selected as a member of the Virginia Constitutional Convention. However, Fugate was also accused of being a member of the powerful Byrd political machine. However, he continued to serve in various high profile positions, including more than twenty years on the board of trustees for Lincoln Memorial University and as a member of the Virginia Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Committee.
