kind of glad he did .” Born in 1906 in the tiny Sullivan County town of Hymera , Tucker was the son of a coal miner and one of nine children . When his father , Jake , was killed in a mining accident , his mother , Rosa , incapable of supporting her family , despite packing lunches for miners at 3 a . m . every morning , moved to bustling Terre Haute to work as a waitress .
Still saddled in poverty , Rosa placed her then 4-year-old son , Ralph , in the Rose Orphanage ; he lived there — apparently fairly happy — for over five years before moving in with an older sister . Graduation from Wiley High School propelled an ambitious and seemingly fearless Tucker into the
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The angel that now adorns Ralph Tucker ’ s gravestone once sat over the entrance to Cottage 2 at the Rose Orphanage , as seen in this close-up . ( Courtesy of John Becker )
business world ; he headed to Chicago and quickly moved from toiling in a livery stable to working for Brunswick-Balke , producer of everything from toilet seats to bowling ball equipment . He was then hired on as a salesman for Armour and Co ., and by 1934 was back in Terre Haute , married to his Windy City sweetheart , Virginia .
By the fall of 1936 , Tucker was charming citizens 15 minutes at a time in front of Hillman ’ s Jewelry store as WBOW ’ s “ Man on the Street ,” honing a skill for which he became known : speaking extemporaneously about anything and everything , without the need of notes . Because of the station ’ s wide reach , Tucker ’ s reputation and visibility grew . Leland Larrison , eventually a political opponent of Tucker ’ s , yet still a friend , said of those days , “ If you would go into a small grocery in Sandcut or Sandford , or down at Farmersburg , or even 50 miles around … and say something derogatory about Ralph Tucker , the ‘ Man on the Street ,’ some woman ’ s liable to hit you with a sack of flour or a purse .”
Tucker confidently decided to run for city clerk in 1938 and was swept into office . After that came a six-year stint as general manager of the National Literary Guild . Then , anxious to get back into politics , he eked out a primary win against Bauer and won his first term as mayor by 4,000 votes . Coming off a landslide second re-election in 1955 , he made a valiant gubernatorial run , one in which he won his party ’ s nomination over Matthew Welsh and Roger Branigin , both who eventually became governors in their own right .
Even though Tucker ran a spirited campaign and ended up 100,000 votes ahead of the Democratic presidential candidate , Adlai Stevenson , he was still crushed by a Dwight Eisenhower landslide and his own party ’ s infighting . His response to the loss was to work as a delegate to the Democratic National Committee and to head the Indiana Municipal League . He also returned to trying to solve Terre Haute ’ s sewage treatment problem , its railroad crossing
SAVE THE DATE !
Hospice of the Wabash Valley ’ s 35 th Annual Tulip Fundraiser
Wednesday , April 27 , 2022
56 Terre Haute Living • March 2022