predecessor successor death_date birth_place death_place religion imagesize jr/sr party term_end birth_date term_start image article_title state birth_name
hugh ike shott william r. laird , iii matthew m. neely robert byrd 6 october 1979 covington , virginia charleston , west virginia presbyterianism 170px united states senator republican january 3 , 1949 january 3 , 1959 20 july 1895 january 3 , 1943 november 7 , 1956 williamcrevercomb.jpg w. chapman revercomb
 west virginia william chapman revercomb
w. chapman revercomb

william chapman revercomb -lrb- july 20 , 1895 -- october 6 , 1979 -rrb- was an american politician and lawyer in the state of west virginia .
he served two separate terms in the united states senate .
he was born in covington , virginia , and attended washington and lee university before entering the united states army in world war i where he served as a corporal .
returning from the war , he transferred to the law school at the university of virginia , graduating in 1919 .
he practiced law in covington for few years before moving to charleston , west virginia in 1922 .
he was elected to the senate in 1942 .
there he championed opposition to the foreign and domestic policies of the administration of harry s. truman and was a stalwart supporter of civil rights .
he was defeated for re-election in 1948 and for the state 's other senate seat in 1952 .
in both races , his support of the national republican party 's civil rights policies were major issues .
in 1956 , he won a special election to fill the vacancy caused by the death of harley m. kilgore -lrb- his opponent in the 1952 election -rrb- .
he re-entered the senate , serving through the end of 1958 .
in 1958 , he lost to congressman robert byrd in his re-election bid in another racially charged election -lrb- byrd held the seat until his death in 2010 , becoming the first u.s. senator to serve uninterrupted for more than 50 years -rrb- .
he then lost the republican nomination for governor in 1960 and retired from politics .
he practiced law in charleston until his death in 1979 .
revercomb was the last republican to represent west virginia in the senate -lrb- his 1956-59 term -rrb- until the election of shelley moore capito in 2014 ended a 58 year streak of democratic senate victories in the state .
