Lloyd Crow Stark (November 23, 1886 – September 17, 1972) was an American businessman and politician who served as the 39th Governor of the U.S. state of Missouri. He was a member of the Democratic Party.
Stark's political career began in 1928, when he chaired Missouri's State Highway Bond Campaign. He served one term as the governor of Missouri from 1937 to 1941 and was a delegate to Democratic National Convention from Missouri in 1940. During his gubernatorial term, Stark's administration established the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center, abolished interstate trade barriers, passed a police reorganization bill, and established a merit system for selection of state employees.[2]
Lloyd Stark had a fierce political rivalry with Harry S. Truman against whom he ran for the Senate in 1940 and lost when he and the prosecutor Maurice M. Milligan, who had toppled the Kansas City political machine, split the anti-Pendergast vote in the Democratic primary.
Although the loss to Truman heralded the end of his political career, Stark spent the remainder of his working life managing the Stark Brothers Nurseries. Meanwhile, Stark influenced the political careers of Clarence Cannon and Stuart Symington.[2] Stark died in Clayton, Missouri in 1972.
The falling out between Stark and the Kansas City boss Tom Pendergast following the 1936 election is widely believed to have been the turning point in Pendergast's fall from power. Pendergast had held so much sway in Missouri in the 1930s that the governor's mansion was dubbed "Uncle Tom's Cabin."[3]
Stark sought and received Pendergast's support. Pendergast's minions were more corrupt and obvious than usual during the 1936 election. That prompted numerous investigations, and Stark turned overtly against Pendergast, who was eventually convicted of income tax evasion.[4]
Stark served as Governor for six weeks beyond his normal term as a result of the controversial 1940 Missouri gubernatorial election, also called the "Great Governorship Steal", in which Pendergast-aligned Democrats attempted to overturn a narrow victory by Republican Forrest C. Donnell. Stark opposed these efforts and vetoed resolutions from the Missouri General Assembly that attempted to recount the election in a manner favorable to Democrats.[5] The controversy was ultimately resolved by the Missouri Supreme Court in favor of Donnell, who was inaugurated six weeks late on February 26, 1941.[6]
Family life
Lloyd Stark was part of a family rather prominent in Missouri and was active with his brother Paul in the then family-owned business Stark Brothers' Nursery (the oldest nursery in America and at one time the largest in the world). The nursery had popularized the Golden Delicious apple.
Stark married Margaret Pearson Stickney of Baltimore in 1908. Together they had sons Lloyd Stickney and John Wingate Stark. Margaret died in 1930. Stark then married Katherine Lemoine Perkins in 1931. They had two daughters, Mary Murray Spottswood and Katherine Lemoine Stark.[2]
Stark's cousin, Charles Stark Draper, was a prominent inventor. The uncle of Lloyd Stark and Charles Stark Draper, state representative, James O. Stark was a prominent supporter and adviser of presidential contender and Speaker of the House, Champ Clark (despite this connection, Clark's son Bennett, Missouri's other Senator, crucially supported Truman in 1940) - and the husband of the niece of Republican anti-slavery activist Elihu Washburne.
