Swope, King, 1893-1961.

U.S. Congressman, Lawyer, Judge.

King Swope, a native of Boyle County, Ky., began practicing law in Lexington, Kentucky while attending the University of Kentucky law school. His practice was interrupted, however, by his service in World War I. After the war, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1919-1921) from the eighth Congressional District. At twenty-six years of age, he was one of the youngest members of Congress ever to assume that office. When he failed to gain re-election, Swope returned to Kentucky and opened a law practice in Lexington. In 1931, Governor Flem D. Sampson appointed Swope to a judgeship in the Fayette County Circuit Court. Swope served in that capacity until 1940, when he again resumed private practice.

In 1935, Swope, the Republican nominee, lost the gubernatorial election to Lieutenant Governor Albert B. "Happy" Chandler and in 1939 he made an unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination for governor, losing in the primary to John Sherman Cooper.