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| Frank B. Willis |
Born: December 28, 1871
Died: March 30, 1928
Political Party: Republican
Term of Office: January 11, 1915 - January 8, 1917
Buried: Oak Grove Cemetery Delaware, Ohio
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Frank B. Willis was born in Lewis Center, Ohio in 1871 to poor farmers. He attended Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio. After graduation he became a professor there, meanwhile he studied law and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1906. In stead of setting up a law practice he decided to teach law courses at ONU.
Willis entered Republican politics in 1900 when he was elected to a seat in the Ohio House of Representatives. After serving 2, 2year terms in state government he lost election to the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1910, he tried again and was elected to a seat in the U.S. House.
In 1914, Willis ran for Governor and beat sitting Governor James M. Cox. As Governor, Willis revamped road laws and made new liquor control laws. He also mobilized troops to help fight Pancho Villa along the Mexican border. Cox returned and beat Willis in his re election bid in 1916. Cox would go on to be the Democratic Candidate for President in 1920. In 1920, Willis placed Ohio Senator Warren G. Hardings name in the running at the Republican National Convention. When Harding won the Presidential election that year, it left an opening in the U. S. Senate. Willis won the election for Hardings Senate seat in 1920. A seat that he held for the rest of his life.
In 1928, Senator Willis was in the planning stages to run for the Republican Nomination for President, when he died unexpectedly.
I visited the gravesite of Frank B. Willis on the way back from visiting southern Ohio on Memorial Day weekend 2010. He is buried in a fairly large cemetery, and we only had a picture to go by. Luckily his gravesite has a very unique marker. So we were eventually able to find it. I lost the pictures for this trip, but on Memorial Day weekend 2017, I made it back down for some pictures.
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| Governor Willis, my kids and I |
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