Governor Stratton’s legacy to Illinois goes far beyond just
a name on an office building. A World War II veteran, Congressman, State
Treasurer, Governor and elder statesman, Stratton served Illinois for more than
60 years. Stratton’s terms as Governor
coincided with Dwight Eisenhower’s years in the White House, and his enthusiastic
early embrace of Eisenhower’s interstate highway system continues to benefit
Illinoisans today.
William Grant Stratton was born February 24, 1914. He
learned the art of politics from his father, William J. Stratton, who served as
Illinois Secretary of State from 1929 to 1933. In 1940, the younger Stratton
was a candidate for Congress. At that time, Illinois was home to several
Congressional districts, but also elected at-large representatives who ran
statewide. It was this at-large seat which Stratton sought to claim, and so his
first campaign was spent crisscrossing the entire state. It was to become a
regular occurrence for Stratton, as he would campaign statewide eight times
over the course of his career.
Victorious in 1940 at the age of 26, Stratton became the
youngest member of the 77th Congress. Having already campaigned
statewide, Stratton was a logical choice for a statewide office of a different
kind, and so in 1942, he ran for and was elected State Treasurer. However, with
the world at war, Stratton stepped down from the Treasurer’s office and
volunteered for the Navy in 1944, serving in the Pacific Theater. With the end
of the war, he returned home and again was elected to a Congressional seat in
1946. When his at-large Congressional seat was eliminated after that term, he
returned to the treasurer’s office in 1950.
With Democratic Governor Adlai Stevenson leaving office to
challenge Eisenhower for the Presidency in 1952, Stratton moved up once again,
defeating the incumbent Lieutenant Governor to become, at age 38, the youngest
Governor in the nation, and the youngest Governor of Illinois in 70 years.
Stratton was famous for the phrase, “good government is good
politics.” As Governor, Stratton set about bringing Illinois’ government into
the modern era. Stratton appointed the first female and African-American
cabinet members in Illinois history. He worked closely with Chicago Mayor
Richard J. Daley to give Illinois a world-class international airport, later
named O’Hare. To go with it, he and Daley believed Chicago should have a
world-class convention center, and so McCormick
Place was born.
With his fellow World War II veterans using the GI bill to
attend college in numbers never before seen in America, Stratton saw the need
for an expanded state university system. He paved the way for the creation of
the University of Illinois Chicago, and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. His
initiatives also included expansions and modernizations of the existing state
university campuses. When SIUE’s first graduating class held its ceremony in
1960, they invited Governor Stratton to be their speaker. Perhaps remembering
his grueling statewide campaigns for Congress, he launched the first
legislative redistricting in more than 50 years, leading to representation that
better reflected the changing nature of Illinois’ population.
Nowhere is Stratton’s impact felt more today, however, than
on Illinois’ highways. With the Cold War looming, Eisenhower set about
modernizing America’s then-inferior system of highways. He found an eager
partner in Governor Stratton, who also served as chairman of the Governor’s
Conference, and later president of the Council of
State Governments. It was from this post, that Stratton found himself in
the middle of developing the interstate system, as well as revolutions in
traffic safety and highway construction. After his death, his wife Shirley said
he considered one of his greatest accomplishments to be the first 200 miles of the
Illinois Tollway which were built during his term.
Defeated for re-election in 1960, Stratton’s
post-gubernatorial legacy was tainted by accusations of tax evasion. He was
acquitted in 1965, and attempted a political comeback in 1968, only to lose in
the primary. Stratton was a delegate to the Republican national convention
twice more, and served on the Illinois Civil Service Commission until his death
in 2001.
Among the pallbearers at Governor Stratton’s funeral were
three of his successors in the Governor’s office, Governors Jim Thompson, Jim Edgar and George
Ryan. Thompson called Stratton, “Illinois’ first progressive Governor. He
modernized state government.”
In recognition of his service, a state
park near his home town of Morris was named in his honor, as was a lock and
dam on the Fox River and the quadrangle at SIU Edwardsville. Governor Stratton
is buried at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.