Reviews, Notes and Comments 433
DEATH OF SENATOR FRANK BARTLETTE WILLIS
On the evening of March 28, 1928, when
he was
about to deliver an address in his
campaign for the
nomination of President of the United
States, at a
home-coming celebration in his honor at
Gray Chapel,
Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware,
Ohio, United
States Senator Frank B. Willis was
stricken and died
while 2,500 of his friends and
neighbors were waiting
to hear him.
Senator Willis was born in Delaware
County, Ohio,
December 28, 1871.
The newspapers of the day following
paid tribute
to his character and worth. We quote
here only a few
lines from an editorial in the Detroit Free
Press:
The death of Senator Frank B. Willis has
robbed Ohio of
a citizen of outstanding ability who
served his state with dis-
tinction and with devotion, and who made
his mark far beyond
the border of his native commonwealth;
it has deprived the Upper
House of Congress of a member the body
could ill afford to lose in
these days of its diminishing prestige,
when men of genuine sen-
atorial size -- and Mr. Willis
unquestionably was such a man --
are becoming fewer and fewer within the
precincts of the
chamber.
This testimonial from a paper and a
state that were
not supporting Senator Willis for the
presidency con-
veys an intimation of the great loss
that Ohio and the
nation have sustained in his death. He
was the friend
of every worthy enterprise and
institution in the state
which he served with such distinguished
ability. He was
much interested in the Ohio State
Archaeological and
Historical Society and seemed always
alert to aid in its
Vol. XXXVII--28.