JOE C. CARR - DOCUMENT SIGNED 05/24/1971 - HFSID 66127

JOE C. CARR
As Tennessee's Secretary of State, he signs the official document dissolving Kitty Wells Publications, Inc. (1971).
Document signed twice: "Joe C. Carr" as Secretary of State, 2 pages. 8½x14, cover 9¼x14½. Tennessee Department of State, 1971 May 24. State of Tennessee Articles of Dissolution of Kitty Wells Publications, Inc. Signed by Carr on front as authorizing official, and also on verso for receipt of $10 filing fee. Large gold seal of the State of Tennessee affixed in lower right front. Joseph Cordell Carr (1907-1981) was Tennessee's Secretary of State 1941-1944, 1945-1949 and 1957-1977. (In Tennessee, the Secretary of State is chosen by the legislature, not by popular vote.) When Carr volunteered for military service in 1944, he wife, Mary Carr, took his place, becoming the first woman to hold a state constitutional office in Tennessee. As the official in charge of Tennessee's elections, Joe Carr was named as defendant in the landmark Supreme Court case of Baker v. Carr (1962), in which the majority of a bitterly divided court ruled that legislative districting was not a purely political question over which courts had no jurisdiction. This opened the door to subsequent cases in which the Court established the one person - one vote principle of legislative district apportionment. (Carr, of course, had not drawn the district boundaries; the Tennessee legislature had done that.) When he retired in 1977, Carr was honored with a bust unveiled in the state capital. Kitty Wells (b. 1919), the long reigning "Queen of Country Music" was near the peak of her popularity in 1971, sharing a national TV program with her husband, country music singer Johnnie Wright. Further research would be required to determine why she dissolved her publishing firm in that year. Fold creases. Cover soiled and creased on edges with small tears at creases. Random ink mark upper left margin area. One staple at center top.