Representative Robert E. Lee Blackburn

Robert E. Lee Blackburn (April 9, 1870 – September 20, 1935) was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives who represented Kentucky’s 7th congressional district for one term from 1929 to 1931. His congressional service took place during a significant period in American history, at the outset of the Great Depression, when he participated in the legislative process and represented the interests of his Kentucky constituents in the Seventy-first Congress.

Blackburn was born on a farm near Furnace, Estill County, Kentucky, on April 9, 1870. When he was an infant, he moved with his parents to Stanton, in Powell County, Kentucky, where he was raised in a rural setting typical of late nineteenth-century central Appalachia. He attended the local county schools and later pursued further education at Elliott Academy in Kirksville, Kentucky, reflecting the limited but growing educational opportunities available in the region at that time.

After completing his schooling, Blackburn entered the workforce as a traveling salesman for an oil company, a position he held from 1891 to 1900. His early career in the oil trade provided him with experience in business and commerce across Kentucky and possibly neighboring states. During the Spanish–American War in 1898, he served in the United States Volunteers as a second lieutenant in Company C, Fourth Infantry, demonstrating a willingness to participate in national service during a brief but consequential conflict that marked the emergence of the United States as a global power.

Following his military service, Blackburn returned to Stanton, where from 1900 to 1907 he engaged in general merchandising and agricultural pursuits, combining retail trade with farming in a manner common to small-town businessmen of the era. His involvement in local affairs led to his election as a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives, in which he served during the 1904 and 1905 sessions. He subsequently held county office as clerk of the court of Powell County, Kentucky, from 1906 to 1910, a role that placed him at the center of local judicial and administrative activities and further established his reputation in public life.

In 1910 Blackburn shifted his focus more fully to the private sector, entering the insurance and stock brokerage business, in which he was engaged from 1910 through 1919. In 1919 he moved to Lexington, Kentucky, the principal city of the state’s Bluegrass region, where he continued his work in insurance and brokerage. He also became involved in oil development, drawing on his earlier experience in the oil industry. His growing prominence in agricultural and business circles led to his appointment to the Kentucky Board of Agriculture in 1926, on which he served until 1928, contributing to the oversight and promotion of the state’s vital agricultural interests.

Blackburn’s long involvement in business, agriculture, and state and local government culminated in his election as a Republican to the Seventy-first Congress. He represented Kentucky’s 7th congressional district from March 4, 1929, to March 3, 1931. During this single term in the United States House of Representatives, he took part in the democratic process at the national level, serving as a member of the Republican Party majority at the beginning of the Great Depression and participating in debates and legislation affecting both his district and the country at large. His tenure reflected the concerns of a largely rural and small-city constituency in central Kentucky during a time of mounting economic distress.

Blackburn sought to continue his congressional career but was unsuccessful in his bid for reelection in 1930 to the Seventy-second Congress and again in his campaign for election in 1932 to the Seventy-third Congress. After these defeats, he returned to private life in Lexington, resuming his former activities in the oil business and maintaining his connections to the commercial life of the region. He resided in Lexington until his death there on September 20, 1935. Robert E. Lee Blackburn was interred in Stanton Cemetery in Stanton, Kentucky, returning in death to the community where he had spent much of his early life and begun his public career.