About Adlai Stevenson II
Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (; February 5, 1900 – July 14, 1965) was an American politician and diplomat who was the United States ambassador to the United Nations from 1961 until his death in 1965. He served as the 31st governor of Illinois from 1949 to 1953 and was the Democratic Party nominee for president of the United States in 1952 and 1956, losing both elections to Dwight D. Eisenhower. Stevenson was the grandson of Adlai Stevenson, the 23rd vice president of the United States. He was raised in Bloomington, Illinois. After a short stint in the U.S. Navy at the end of World War I, he became a lawyer. He served in many positions in the federal government during the Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman presidential administrations, including in the Department of the Navy, and the State Department during World War II. In 1945, he served on the committee that created the United Nations, and was a member of the initial U.S. delegations to the UN. In 1948, Stevenson was elected governor of Illinois, defeating incumbent governor Dwight H. Green in an upset. As governor, Stevenson reformed the state police, cracked down on illegal gambling, improved the state highways, and attempted to cleanse the state government of corruption. Stevenson also sought, with mixed success, to reform the Illinois state constitution and introduced several crime bills in the state legislature. In 1952 and 1956, Stevenson was chosen as the Democratic nominee for president but was defeated in a landslide by Eisenhower both times, campaigning on themes of diplomatic engagement, moderate economic management, and the preservation of civil liberties amid the tensions of the early Cold War. In 1960, he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination for a third time at the Democratic National Convention. After President John F. Kennedy was elected, persistent tensions – particularly Kennedy's perception that Stevenson had been late to endorse his candidacy – prompted Kennedy to decline offering him a cabinet position and instead appoint him as the United States ambassador to the United Nations (UN). Two major events Stevenson dealt with during his time as UN ambassador were the Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in April 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. He was still serving as UN ambassador through the Lyndon Johnson administration when he suffered a heart attack during a visit to London on July 14, 1965, dying later that day at the age of 65. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in his hometown of Bloomington, Illinois. He returned to Bloomington where he wrote for the family newspaper, The Daily Pantagraph, which was founded by his maternal great-grandfather Jesse Fell.
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