Monday, Aug. 09, 2010
Roy Acuff
He may have been the king of country music, but that didn't mean he would be elected to office. Grand Ole Opry star Roy Acuff, who famously sang "Wabash Cannonball" with his Smoky Mountain Boys, was so popular in Tennessee that the Republican Party begged him to run for the governorship in 1948. Acuff garnered more votes than any GOP candidate before him, but it was not enough to win in the then solidly Democratic state.