In 'man's world,' Anna Belle Clement O'Brien was political pioneer

By Chas Sisk, The Tennessean

ANNA BELLE CLEMENT O'BRIEN | 1923-2009

Anna Belle Clement O'Brien's life work was never going to be fetching coffee. Her ambitions and political talents were far too great for that, something that her brother Frank recognized even when they were children growing up in Dickson.

"My father, at age 16, would go around telling people that he would be governor of Tennessee one day," former U.S. Rep. Bob Clement recalled Tuesday. "And he'd keep telling Anna Belle, 'When I run for office, I want you to drop everything and work for me.' "

Anna Belle Clement O'Brien, who died Monday night at 86 after suffering a fall in her Crossville home, did just that, starting a political climb that would take her from working on big brother Frank Clement's run for governor in 1952 to being a serious candidate for the office herself 30 years later.

Mrs. O'Brien helped found a Tennessee political dynasty that would include Clement, her nephew Bob and a husband, Charles O'Brien, who would serve as a justice on the state Supreme Court.

But she was a powerful figure in her own right. Serving in the state Senate from 1977 to 1997, Mrs. O'Brien was the first woman to chair a Senate committee - two, actually.

Mrs. O'Brien also was the first woman to chair the Senate Democratic Caucus, a mentor to other women legislators and a champion of women's issues, sponsoring the 1989 bill that required insurers in Tennessee to cover mammogram checks for breast cancer.

"It was like she was here waiting on me when I got here," state Sen. Thelma Harper, D-Nashville, said Tuesday. "She was a kind woman, but she was effective."

'No better partisan'

Mrs. O'Brien was a lifelong Democrat, and political foes remembered her as someone who could fight for her party during the day and have dinner with her adversaries at night.

"She was sort of like Ted Kennedy," said Tom Ingram, a chief of staff to former Gov. Lamar Alexander. "When she needed to be partisan, there was no better partisan. But when it was time to reach across the aisle, she was a compromiser."

She was born in Scottsville, Ky., and her family settled during the Great Depression in Dickson, where her father was the county recorder. Mrs. O'Brien attended McMurry College in Texas on a speech scholarship before returning to Tennessee.

Known as Miss Anna Belle to most - a reference to the Southern belle demeanor that masked her tough, sharp style - Mrs. O'Brien was destined to go into politics, even though she came of age at a time when women had few prospects in Tennessee state government.

Mrs. O'Brien's first husband, A.W. Lucas, was the mayor of New Johnsonville. But it was only because her brother Frank was elected governor that she ever got her shot.

After Clement's election, Mrs. O'Brien was assigned to be a secretary to the governor's political ally, future Gov. Buford Ellington. The job answering phones and dealing with constituents prepared her for a bright future in Tennessee politics.

"She learned how to make coffee ... how to wait on men and how not to be disgruntled, and if she was, you didn't know it," Harper said. "She knew it was a man's world, but she learned how to turn it into a positive."

Mrs. O'Brien's talents as a political operative were evident, however, and after Clement took the governor's office back from Ellington in 1962, he made Mrs. O'Brien his right-hand aide, giving her an administrative post.

The position was the equivalent of today's chief of staff or deputy governor, placing her in a visible political job years before the women's rights movement. But few people questioned her role.

"Her sense of human nature made her understand that she was to present herself and speak as a woman, if she was to be admired and respected," said John Seigenthaler, a former editor and publisher of The Tennessean. "She understood where the lines were drawn, and she was careful not to cross those lines."

It was while serving in that capacity that Mrs. O'Brien met her second husband, Charles, a Memphis state senator. Charles O'Brien would later be named to the Tennessee Supreme Court, rising to chief justice.

The couple moved to Crossville, where Anna Belle O'Brien was elected to the House in 1974. Two years later, she was elected to the Senate, running on the slogan, "A woman's place is in the House ... and the Senate too!"

'Politics is a beautiful word'

Mrs. O'Brien would be better known for another slogan, "Politics is a beautiful word." The motto captured her New Deal-era belief that government could improve the lives of others.

"I know that politics makes handicapped children walk. Politics builds interstate highways and helps those who are mentally sick," Mrs. O'Brien later said. "I know that politics helps the working man, the small businessman and makes education more accessible for everyone."

Mrs. O'Brien ran for governor in 1982, becoming the first woman to be seen as a serious contender for the office. She said at the time that the governorship would be a piece of cake after serving in the legislature.

"Having been an administrative assistant to a governor, I would have to say in all honesty that being governor, to me, would be easier than the job I have now," she told a reporter. "At least, I would have assistants, have a staff and have people to talk with."

Mrs. O'Brien sparred frequently with Alexander, the incumbent, during the primary campaign, hitting particularly hard on his economic record as the nation went through a recession. The strategy worked well enough for her to receive more than 40 percent of the vote in the primary, but she was nonetheless beaten by Knoxville Mayor Randy Tyree.

Tyree would go on to lose to Alexander in the general election.

"Anna Belle, the day after losing an election, she would say, 'What's next?' " Bob Clement recalled Tuesday. "She would not belabor the past. That's over. It was hard for me to do that, but she could let go and let God take over."

Big victories followed loss

Mrs. O'Brien scored some of her biggest wins in the years that followed. She worked with Alexander in his second term to pass his education agenda, and she worked with House GOP Leader Jim Henry to improve service for the disabled.

Later in the 1980s, she would undergo a mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer. A doctor told her that had the lump in her breast not been detected during her annual physical that year, she probably would have died.

It was then that she learned many insurers at the time did not pay for breast exams, a situation she sought to rectify with the state law requiring coverage for mammograms.

Four years later, Mrs. O'Brien and Harper would work together on a bill to extend the statute of limitations on lawsuits against the makers of silicone breast implants. A recipient of an implant after her mastectomy, Mrs. O'Brien said the law would protect women.

"She knew how to build coalitions," Harper said.

Mrs. O'Brien is survived by her sister, Emma Gene Peery, two stepchildren and seven nieces and nephews.

Visitation will be noon to 8 p.m. Thursday at Hood Funeral Home in Crossville, and funeral services are at 11 a.m. Friday at the Tansi Community Church in Crossville. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Tansi Community Church or the Gov. Frank G. Clement Museum in Dickson.