SENATE, 67th and 68th General Assemblies, 1931-35; representing Montgomery and Robertson counties; Democrat; elected Speaker of Senate (67th) June 1, 1931 to fill vacancy in that office caused by resignation of Scott Fitzhugh. Born on farm near Cadiz, Trigg County, Ky., Nov. 21, 1885; son of P. H. and Catherine (Jones) Broadbent. Attended public and private schools of Montgomery County and North Carolina; received LL.B. degree from Cumberland University, Lebanon, Wilson County, 1912; admitted to bar same year. Married Nashville, Davidson County, Nov. 16, 1938, to Belle Banister of Clarksville, Montgomery County, daughter of Isaac Shelby and Myra (Wilson) Banister. Practiced law at Clarksville from 1912. Managed gubernatorial campaigns of Austin Peay 1922, 1924, 1926, and that of Gordon Browning 1936; elected to State Democratic Executive Committee 1926; Secretary of State for Tenn. 1937-41; chairman state board of law examiners to 1945; judge of county court, 1945, until resignation, Oct. 16, 1951; judge of criminal court same year; member Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church, Clarksville, Montgomery County Bar Assn; Tennessee Bar Assn; Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Junior Order of United American Mechanics; Rotary Club. Died at Clarksville June 15, 1952; buried in Greenwood Cemetery.

Sources:  Information supplied by Mrs. Belle Broadbent, Clarksville; Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle, May 27, 1949; Tenn. Blue Book, 1938; Hamer, Tennessee, A History, III, 201; Gillum, Prominent Tennesseans, 46; Tenn. Public Acts, 1931, Senate Journal, 67th General Assembly, 1931, 730; Beach, Along the Warioto, 89.
 

Biographies submitted by Jill Hastings-Johnson, Montgomery County Archivist