Background
Chapman, Virgil Munday was born on March 15, 1895 in at Simpson County, Kentucky, United States. Son of James Virgil and Lily (Munday) Chapman.
lawyer politician representative senator
Chapman, Virgil Munday was born on March 15, 1895 in at Simpson County, Kentucky, United States. Son of James Virgil and Lily (Munday) Chapman.
Bachelor of Laws, University Kentucky, 1918 (junior and senior honor prizes).
Chapman, originally from Middleton, Kentucky, practiced law in Irvine, Kentucky, then Paris, Kentucky, then Lexington, Kentucky. In 1924 Chapman was elected to the United States House of Representatives and served two terms representing Kentucky"s 7th Congressional District in the House, 1925-1929. In 1928 Chapman lost his House seat in the Republican landslide as Herbert Hoover was elected president
Chapman was ousted that year by Republican Robert East. Lee Blackburn but defeated Blackburn in a rematch two years later, in 1930.
Chapman, re-elected to the House in 1930, served two terms, 1931-1935, representing the 7th district. Chapman then was elected to represent Kentucky"s 6th district in the House and held that seat from 1935 through 1949.
In 1948 Chapman defeated incumbent John Sherman Cooper for a seat in the United States Senate. An automobile accident in Washington, District of Columbia killed Chapman on March 8, 1951.
He was buried in the Paris Cemetery.
Later in life, Chapman was said to have suffered from alcoholism. In Robert Caro"s Pulitzer Prize winning book "Master of the Senate," Chapman is chronicled as a Senator who was routinely inebriated at work in the United States Senate. Chapman was succeeded in both the House of Representatives and the Senate by Thomas R. Underwood.
This is rare but not unique — Dan Quayle, William Hathaway, Spark Matsunaga, Henry C. Hansbrough, and Jonathan Chace were all also succeeded by the same person in both the House and Senate.
Virgil Chapman at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Member American, Kentucky State, Bourbon, Fayette County bar associations, South Carolina.V., Morgan’s Men's Association, Alpha Delta Sigma, Phi Alpha Delta, Tau Kappa Alpha, Order of the Coif, Scabbard and Blade. Member Disciples of Christ Church. Mason (Shriner), Odd.
Clubs: National Press, Jefferson Islands (Washington).
Married Mary Adams Talbott, June 12, 1920.