Richard Harmon Fulton - January 27, 1927- November 28, 2018
Much will be written about former Mayor Richard H. Fulton over the next few days. This is the story of Dick Fulton from East Nashville.
His friends called him Dickie when he was a kid growing up in East Nashville. His parents, Lyle H. Fulton Sr. and Lavina Plummer Fulton bought a home at 628 Fatherland Street when Fulton was a toddler and it was home until he was an adult. With his family, he attended church at Tulip Street Methodist Church on Russell Street. He was friendly and well liked. He was the baby of the family of two girls, Wyadine and Mary Jo and two boys Richard and Lyle, Jr. He made the society pages very young, listed as an attendee in 1934 at a birthday party for Bettie Mae Ballard. He attended local schools, Warner School, and East Nashville Junior and East Nashville Senior High schools. He was a football star at East High making the All-City team two years in a row, 1943 and 1944. He graduated from East High School in 1944.
He learned to work hard from his father L. H. Fulton, who held a national record from the National Railroad Association for most consecutive days worked on a railroad. He worked seven days a week for 13 years and two weeks without a vacation or a day off. Mr. Fulton worked for the Nashville Terminal in the signal department.
Dick Fulton grew up following in his brother's very large footprints. Lyle Fulton, Jr. played football at East High School and a few years later Dick did the same. Lyle Fulton served in the Army Air Corp, 1943-1946 during WWII. Dick joined the Navy in 1945 and in June he was a seaman second class, stationed at Bainbridge, Maryland. Lyle returned from the war and bought a drug store at 7th and Fatherland. Richard went to work for him. After a couple of years, the drugstore was sold and Lyle and Dick opened Fulton Center near 11th and Woodland. The brothers called it a department store and they sold a huge variety of items. Lyle was a good businessman and he revitalized the East Nashville Business Association and was elected president. Dick was close behind him in the business world. In 1954 Lyle ran for a seat in the Tennessee State Senate. Then tragedy struck. Lyle Fulton died in October of 1954 from cancer at the age of 30. Dick was nominated to take Lyles place as the Democratic candidate for the Senate seat. Though he won the election he was only 27. The required age was 30 and the Senate refused to seat him and the spot when to Clifford Allen.
In 1958 Fulton, now 31, ran for the state Senate seat and won. In 1962 Richard Fulton aimed higher and ran for the 5th Congressional District seat in the United States House of Representative. He was 35 years old and highly thought of in Davidson County. Fulton was re-elected in the subsequent elections through 1974 when he was elected to his 7th term as Congressman. In 1975 Richard Fulton decided to return to Nashville and run for mayor. He won the election easily with 70 percent of the vote, to serve as the second mayor of Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County.
Mayor Fulton was a hands-on politician. He took the bull by the horns and ran with it. He followed this position in Congress and in the Mayor's office. He talked to people and more important he listened to people. He remembered people and he remembered their stories. While in Congress he supported Civil Rights. He never forgot where he came from. He was always a friend to the poor, to African-Americans, to workers and unions, and to East Nashville. He never met a stranger. He treated each person as his equal and put all at ease immediately. He made everyone feel as if they were in the presence of an old and caring friend.
Mayor Richard Harmon Fulton passed away on November 28, 2018. He was 91 years old. He will be remembered fondly.