Senator Frank Lester Greene

Frank Lester Greene served as a Senator from Vermont in the United States Congress from 1912 to 1930. A member of the Republican Party, Frank Lester Greene contributed to the legislative process during 8 terms in office.

Frank Lester Greene’s service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history. As a member of the Senate, Frank Lester Greene participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of constituents.

Frank Lester Greene (February 10, 1870 – December 17, 1930) was a Vermont newspaper editor and militia officer. He is most notable for his service as a United States representative and senator. A native of St. Albans, Vermont, he was educated in St. Albans and Cleveland, Ohio, and began working as a teenager to help support his family after his father became disabled. He became a clerk for the Central Vermont Railway, and later became a journalist and editor of the St. Albans Messenger newspaper. Greene also served in the militia; enlisting as a private, by the time of the Spanish–American War he was a company commander with the rank of captain. He later served on the military staff of Governor Edward Curtis Smith, with the rank of colonel; Smith had been his employer at the Central Vermont Railway and St. Albans Messenger. Long active in politics and government as a Republican, in 1912 he won a special election to complete the term of Congressman David J. Foster, who had died. He was reelected to a full term in November 1912, and won reelection to four more terms. In 1922, Greene was elected to the United States Senate. He was reelected in 1928, and served until his death. In 1924, Greene was wounded when Prohibition agents attempting to apprehend the owners of a Washington, D.C., moonshine still accidentally shot him in the head. Greene never fully recovered, and was left partly paralyzed. He died as the result of surgical complications while being treated for a hernia, and was buried in St. Albans.